News & Events

OPEN CALL: Debunking and fact-checking articles exposing Kremlin disinformation

The FENCE initiative, supported by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), offers small-scale grants to boost fact-checking and debunking activities in Southeast Europe, with a special focus on Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. The initiative’s aim is to reveal the Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda narratives being spread across the region, and in particular those used by domestic actors in national political…

Factcheck.bg became member of the International Fact-Checking Network

Factcheck.bg is the first fact-checking platform in Bulgaria, endorsed by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in the USA. Factcheck.bg was launched in June 2021 as an initiative of the Association of European Journalists to counter the growing amount of misinformation in the Bulgarian media environment. In just over…

Introductory report on identified disinformation narratives

Download full report (PDF)   Between 2021 and the first half of 2022, Bulgaria underwent several significant political events, including presidential elections and four parliamentary elections. This period was characterized by various challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a surge of deaths, as well as unprovoked military aggression from the Kremlin and…

Disinformation narratives, spread by Russian controlled media in Bulgaria: the example of News Front

Flash report Authors: Goran Georgiev, Todor Galev   The Bulgarian version of the nine-language Russia-controlled online outlet News Front could be classified as a small outlet, with around 150 thousand visits per month(1) as compared to mainstream media, which have from a few to tens of millions of visits per month. The company behind the…

Countering malign foreign disinformation and propaganda

Countering Russian disinformation and propaganda requires not only deterrence, but also a long-term strategy of media literacy training and awareness campaigns for the general public. In the short term, the creation of a state body to monitor the media environment and combat disinformation, similar to the existing ones in the Western countries, would help. Another…

Disinformation narratives in the Bulgarian online media: the US accused of setting up bio labs in the post-Soviet space

Flash report Author: Svetoslav Malinov   “There is an ever-growing number of new American secret laboratories showing up in the post-soviet space, conducting bio-military activities, especially in Ukraine” is one of the leading disinformation narratives in the time period 2019-2022, spread by pro-Kremlin figures in the Bulgarian online media domain(1) It is a complex narrative…

The Association of the European Journalist calls for complete ban on RT propaganda

The AEJ today calls for an EU-wide ban on RT, which has played a key part in spreading lies and endorsing “false flag” that ensured confusion over Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, and in general seeking to weaken Western democracies which Ukraine wishes to join. Full statement here

Mediapool.bg: Could Bulgariа order for F-16 fighters become a Russian weapon in the hybrid warfare?

The deal with the US for eight F-16 fighter jets is the most significant and expensive step in the modernisation of the Bulgarian army in at least 20 years, but now it is in danger of becoming a hybrid tool of Russia. The contract was signed by the last government of Boyko Borissov, but its…

Mediappol.bg: The loopholes in the Bulgarian position on the crisis in Ukraine are becoming more dangerous

Bulgaria has once again proven to be one of the most insecure NATO member states – with a divided society, a “captured” political class, corruption and lack of leadership, and the cost of this behaviour in the deepening crisis over Ukraine is becoming higher and higher. Russia’s main hybrid weapon in Bulgaria is the NATO-Russia…

Disinformation in Bulgaria USA and NATO portrait as seeking world domination through military and political aggression

Flash repor Author: Svetoslav Malinov   “USA/NATO seeks world domination through military and political aggression” is one of the persistent disinformation and propaganda narratives in 2021, spread by pro-Kremlin actors in the online media in Bulgaria (1). It is a complex narrative, which persists in different contexts and back- grounds, accommodating a series of other…