Countering disinformation in Bulgaria

what is achieved under the EU framework and why not more?

Абстракт

The EU efforts to create a disinformation-proof media ecosystem are fundamental to Europe’s recovery. Especially in the light of the current events like the Covid-19 pandemic that led to an infodemic and the war in Ukraine that is accompanied by information war, the capacity of the EU to maintain access to quality information in all Member States is a primary task.

In some countries the vulnerability of the society to disinformation narratives has reached high levels. The degree of coherence and similarity in the implementation of the European Approach to combating disinformation between the Member States is not sufficient. The low media literacy and the low trust in media are additional obstacles to the EU revival in time of crises. Therefore, this paper is focusing on Bulgaria as one of the EU Member States facing greater challenges in the field.

Despite the existence of common EU tools for countering disinformation like the Code of Practice, the Rapid Alert System, etc., the results in Bulgaria are still very limited. This paper argues that in order to be possible for countries as Bulgaria to achieve more in the field, further political, institutional and coordination efforts should be made among the separate Member States, but also at supranational level to better implement EU instruments to tackle disinformation. The study used a descriptive and analytical method research.