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Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Bulgaria: Clashes Between Roma and Ethnic Bulgarians in Katunitsa

Bulgaria: A Day Without PM Boyko Borisov

July 5, 2011, presented an interesting challenge to the traditional Bulgarian media: would they follow a Facebook appeal for "A Day Without Boyko Borisov" - or would they continue to report on the activities of Bulgaria's Prime Minister?

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Macedonia: Views from Abroad on Protests Against Police Violence 6 July 2011
Bulgaria: Right-Wing Group and Muslims Clash in Sofia 20 May 2011
Slovakia: Second-Class Customers 11 May 2011
Bulgaria: Bloggers Discuss the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia 17 January 2011
Christmas Recipes in Global Food Blogs 23 December 2010

Latest stories about Bulgaria

19 April 2012

Bulgaria: Living With Hepatitis C

Written by Rayna St. · Health, Citizen Media

Rayna Stamboliyska interviews the author of "Hepatitis-Minded: Thoughts of a Contaminated," a blog that does a fabulous job informing people about Hepatitis C.

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1 April 2012

Bulgaria: Sofia Students Plan to Protest if Officials Impose Curfew

Written by Rayna St. · Education, Governance

The accidental killing of a student in the student district of Sofia sparkled a debate in Bulgaria. The government ended up with a quick and controversial solution: to impose a curfew on the district. This is mostly seen as a wrong solution to the wrong problem. Rayna Stamboliyska reports.

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31 March 2012

Bulgaria: Construction of the Nuclear Power Plant “Belene” Cancelled

Written by Rayna St. · Environment, Governance

The Bulgarian government announced the cancellation of the construction of the nuclear power plant "Belene" on March 28. This controversial project and the consequences of its halt drew quite some attention. Rayna Stamboliyska reports.

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14 March 2012

Europe: Will ACTA Treaty Pass After Protests?

Written by Suzanne Lehn · Translated by Danielle Martineau · Governance, Law

The ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty (ACTA) by the European Parliament has been delayed in expectation of an opinion from the European Court of Justice on its conformity with fundamental rights.

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12 February 2012

Bulgaria: Thousands Take Part in Anti-ACTA Protests

Written by Rayna St. · Freedom of Speech, Governance

Hundreds of anti-ACTA protests took place all over Europe for Saturday, February 11. Bulgaria was no exception: thousands of protesters braved cold in Sofia and 14 other Bulgarian cities and towns. Even though much remains to be done, these rallies have shown a breach in the Bulgarians' apathy wall.

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31 March 2011

Macedonia, Bulgaria: Facing Hate Speech

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Freedom of Speech, History

Two NGOs, from Macedonia and from Bulgaria, have published an analysis of the Macedonian-Bulgarian hate speech in the traditional and new media.

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19 March 2011

Bulgaria: Offering Shelter to Japanese Earthquake Victims

Written by Ruslan Trad · Disaster, International Relations

The earthquake in Japan has become a tragedy for the entire world. This is evident from the willingness of people from different countries and continents to help the victims of the quake, which took the lives of thousands of people. Ruslan Trad reports on the Bulgarian online initiative.

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3 March 2011

Macedonia: What About the Census?

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Elections, Language

A number of Balkan countries were scheduled to run a census this spring: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Filip Stojanovski reviews what Macedonian bloggers are writing about the political aspects of the procedure.

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21 November 2010

Bulgaria: Reactions to Hate Speech Against Arabs and Islam

Written by Ruslan Trad · Law, Religion

Kapka Siderova, the wife of a far-right nationalist politician in Bulgaria, made some controversial statements about Arab women on a popular talk show yesterday, sparking outrage and allegations of racism and bigotry. Ruslan Trad reviews the reactions of Bulgarian Facebook users.

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1 November 2010

Bulgaria: Reactions to Dilma Rousseff's Victory in Brazil

Written by Ruslan Trad · Elections, Governance

Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rousseff has been the subject of many conversations in Bulgaria, due to her Bulgarian roots. Ruslan Trad translates some of the online reactions.

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Updates about Bulgaria

22 May 2012

English

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake, the strongest since 1917, shook Bulgaria's capital Sofia and the perimeter zone of around 100 km last night, followed by a number of strong aftershocks. No victims have been reported so far. The website Earthquake Reports has published live updates and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook were the first ones to spread the news. The hashtag #земетресение (”earthquake”) is used to communicate on the event through Twitter.

• Rayna St.

21 May 2012

Bulgarian

Young Bulgarians and guests from Italy, with support of the New Bulgarian University and project “Beautiful Europe” [bg] will meet on May 23 to discuss the “European idea” and what Europe means to Bulgarians at an event called “Blue Night” - an evening dedicated to the European idea [bg]. The event comes just one day before one of the brightest Bulgarian holidays - the Day of Slavic writing and culture.

• Ruslan Trad

Bulgarian

Activists in Bulgaria have called for national protests against shale gas extraction on May 22. There is a Facebook event [bg] “National protest against shale gas and changes in Forest Law!”. Tensions are growing after The Greens' activist posted a video [bg] showing a secret meeting between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) representatives and Chevron officials.

• Ruslan Trad

4 May 2012

Citizen Media

Global Voices in Bulgarian was lauded by the Bulgarian section of the Association of European Journalists as the April 2012 winners of “Excellence in Citizen Journalism” for bringing unheard international news to Bulgaria, and proving that citizen journalism also exists at a highly professional level. The announcement (in Bulgarian) was made on World Press Freedom Day, on May 3.

• Solana Larsen

26 April 2012

Bulgarian

The blog “Работнически глас” (”Worker's voice”) tells [bg] about a trial scheduled for May 26: a former female employee is suing a company for a discriminatory clause in the work contract, which stated that any female employee who gets pregnant after being hired will have to pay a fine (700 lv, around 350 euros: nearly double the average salary in Bulgaria). In her lawsuit, the employee argues that this clause constitutes a discrimination based on sex. It is still unclear how such a contract could have been approved by the official labor administration.

• Rayna St.

Bulgarian

Various blogs [bg] and mainstream media [bg] were telling [bg] about a student initiative held in the capital city of Sofia on April 24. Many students and members of diverse youth organizations planted trees in the badly-maintained Studentski Grad (”Students City”), a welcome citizen initiative where the leitmotiv was “Big change begins with small steps.” The trees were planted near an abandonned building that has been refurbished by student volunteers who'd like to transform it into a Student center.

• Rayna St.

23 April 2012

Bulgarian

On May 19, the 15th annual May Bicycle Parade will gather thousands of supporters of cycling in Sofia with one clear goal - to count the cyclists and show that in Sofia there are more of them than ever. Bulgarian NGO “Bicycle revolution” is organizing the event [bg]. In 2009, more than 3,000 cyclists took part in the Parade.

• Ruslan Trad

Bulgarian

As many in Bulgaria fear that there are fewer people reading books now than in the past, Ognyan Antov of Anapest offers [bg] three answers to the question “Why should we read books?”: 1. Because thus we absorb the language and its grammar and spelling; 2. This way, we come to know world; 3. Because thereby we feel like one society.

• Ruslan Trad

21 April 2012

Bulgarian

Blogger Nikolay Delchev condemned [bg] the reaction of the Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov to the recent student protests against construction at the National Sports Academy's Black Sea training facility: “[…] Interior Minister almost regrets that ‘the whole repressive apparatus that they (the police) have by law has not always been used.' This was said by a minister of a democratically elected government in a European country in the early 21st century. Please leave comments, because I have no words. […]” A video of Tsvetanov's controversial statement is here [bg].

• Ruslan Trad

4 April 2012

Bulgarian

The collaborative media outlet svobodnoslovo.com writes [bg] about a new book by Lyubomir Levchev [bg], who mentions Lyudmila Jivkova's death 30 years ago. It has always been reported that Jivkova, the daughter of Bulgaria's last communist dictator, died in a car accident. Levchev explains, however, that she might have been poisoned: he writes about a ring with a turquoise stone Jivkova used to wear that had started whitening a few months before she died. This property has been known [fr] since the Antiquity as a sign of poison in the body.

• Rayna St.

Comments on "Bulgaria"

Bulgaria: Penalty For Getting Pregnant

I think this is bad idea, 350euro are too weak. Anyway thanks for this information.

Bulgarian communist "dictator"?

Black March Boycott protest ACTA, do NOT buy Movies, Music or Video Games for the month of March. Get the...
Great article,great job.Even though we have much bigger problems in Bulgaria than ACTA i feel proud and happy that young...
Next time we will be there again :)