Journalism and the 'Ghosts of Communism': A Comparative Study of News Media Roles and Practices in the Fragile Democracies of Bulgaria and Romania

This study examines the fitful and uneven emergence of independent-minded journalism in Bulgaria and Romania, neighboring states where legacies of communist rule are varied but run deep, more than three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The findings reported here are drawn principally from fifty in-depth interviews with contemporary reporters, producers, and commentators from broadcast, print, and online media in the two countries. The interview subjects described a variety of government-imposed and other impediments that create barriers to independent-minded journalism. Drawing on models of journalistic roles and practice, the study addresses a gap in scholarly research on the development of media systems in post-communist contexts – especially in Eastern Europe. Interview subjects in both countries warned of the continuing influence of the former nomenklatura and indicated that key examples of that continuing legacy of communist rule include barriers to public information, instances of self-censorship, and the use of kompromat to delegitimize journalists. The findings demonstrate how legacies of communist rule still influence news professionals and complicate their perceived roles. The study also signals differing degrees of the impacts of communist rule as well as how the sense of journalistic community and role models can be vital in promoting distinctive journalistic practices. Other measures of the variance of journalistic practice between Bulgaria and Romania are evident in comparative ratings of press freedom and democratization. Both countries, however, are most accurately described as fragile or "semi-consolidated," an interpretation this study confirms.