Bulgaria local news media

The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People's Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007.

Bulgaria has four national terrestrial television stations, of which one is state-owned and three are privately-owned. A vast array of TV stations are available from cable and satellite TV providers. State-owned national radio broadcasts over 3 networks. Additionally, a large number of private radio stations broadcast, especially in urban areas. Bulgaria has over 700,000 Internet hosts and over 3 million Internet users.

Bulgarian newspapers include Dneven Trud and 24 Chasa (both published by the German newspaper group Westdeutsche Algemeine Zeitung), Standart News, Novinar, and Monitor.