Secrets, Lies, and Journalist-Spies: the contemporary moral dilemma for Bulgarian media professionals

The subject of this article is the issue of journalist-spies in the Bulgarian media before and after the fall of communism in 1989. The focus is on the perceptions of Bulgarian journalists on the role alleged secret service collaborators played, and continue to play, in the postcommunist society and media landscape. Role perceptions are explored through semi-structured interviews with practicing journalists from the capital city, Sofia. The findings suggest that Bulgarian journalists continue to be concerned with, and affected by, the influence of former communist spies on the Bulgarian media, a controversy that has largely been ignored by media scholars.