The freedom of speech in Bulgaria has received a failing grade on a one to five scale in a poll of the Association of European Journalists Bulgaria, AEJ.

48 out of 113 journalists, taking part in the poll, have assessed the freedom of speech in the country as poor – or 2. On the scale, 5 was excellent, 4 – good, 3 – satisfactory, 2 – poor, and 1 – very poor.

The average of all responses is 2.42. Only 4 believe that the freedom of speech is excellent; 5 – that it is good; 41 – satisfactory, and 15 – very poor.

The poll was conducted online in August-September among journalists working in print media, radio, TV, internet sites and bloggers across the country and had been distributed through direct emails - 95 of those who have responded work in Sofia, 65 are in print media, and 94 – in privately-owned media.

Precisely journalists from Sofia assess the freedom of speech as poor, while those in the country – as satisfactory.

The main problem in journalistic work in Bulgaria is political pressure, according to the participants – 58 of all; 28 have listed economic pressure; another 28 say they have never been pressured; 22 declined to answer.

According to 57, the media where they work is subject to political pressure; 45 – to economic one, while only 12 say there is no pressure at all at their work place. 82 have been direct witnesses of violations of freedom of speech. 30 listed a positive answer to the question if critics against advertisers in the media are allowed without restrictions; 34 – that such critics are rather banned, and 23 – that they are never allowed.

The poll had been anonymous with the option for the respondents to list their name – only 12, 9 of whom women, have done so. 22 have written free comments, mainly on economic pressure from advertisers and political one through politicians' phone calls. Two told about being fired over a material hurting somebody's political or business interests, one of them – a renowned journalist with high achievements and international awards.