Genka Shikerova, a leading Bulgarian journalist, saw her Peugeot set on fire in a suspected arson attack on Monday evening, underscoring the rampant examples of intimidation against Bulgarian journalists in recent weeks.
Shikerova's car completely burned down, news reports said, and there has yet been any claim of responsibility for the attack.
"Shikerova was restless [in asking tough questions] What happened is directly linked to her restless style in trying to get the truth out. And is certainly a warning against brave journalists about what could happen to them," author on human rights and security Iveta Cherneva said.
Another incident occurred last week involving the two reporters Annie Tzolova and Viktor Nikolaev. Their popular BTV morning show was unceremoniously taken off the air, and their only crime seemed to have been that they asked too many tough questions to Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski. Most of the questions dealt with the anti-government protests prevalent throughout Sofia this summer. They also pressed him concerning his controversial choice for head of the National Security Agency.
"Tzolova and Nikolaev paid the price of losing their jobs for asking uncomfortable questions," Cherneva said. "The departure of the two journalists is troublesome. Their dismissal is too big of a coincidence... These two had the highest morning prime time rating because they were doing their job well, so it's unlikely that they just left like that, all of a sudden -- it's more likely that there was pressure to fire them."
A strong sentiment against political parties in the 2013 demonstrations had been pervasive, which has not abated at all, with continued efforts for a change of the political model and a nationalization of strategic economic sectors, news reports said.
For a country which is part of a multi-government organization espousing the highest tenets of democratic ideals, like the European Union, the crackdown on the free press remains a "systemic" problem, as Cherneva calls it.
"The thought that all you've worked for could be taken away just like that -- because you were doing your job as a journalist -- should sound troublesome to anyone living in an EU democracy. Getting rid of uncomfortable journalists is something that should never happen in an EU country."
Prominent non-government organizations are investigating the latest in a series of government crackdown episodes against the press. The very tenets to an open and free press need be inherent in any democracy.
