Mediamixx 2012 – for freedom of media, of opinions and the drama of series

Mediamixx 2012 – for freedom of media, of opinions and the drama of series

The 18th issue of the International Media Forum Mediamixx 2012 took place from 10 to 13 June 2012 in Albena.

The only media forum in our country gathered over 500 participants and became possible thanks to the support of Sopharma and the principal sponsor Globul.

Along with the congress part, two new festivals: Cross Media Festival and Bulgarian TV Series Awards Festival, were held concurrently for the first time in the forum. The Cross Media awards were dictated by the rapid information development of Bulgarian media and brought together all their interests. The aim was to show the transformation and enrichment of the content of an idea when passing through the various media forms.

Awards for the best TV series Golden Umbrella came in response to the establishment of the Bulgarian series as a major segment in the content of televisions. Congress discussions, which focused the interest of the media Guild and the society, were on present-day topics such as the freedom of media, АСТА draft law, copyrights and media digitalization. The first discussion panel „Media Wars” or media between freedom, business and politics” reflected various viewpoints on the subject, and participants united around the opinion that there were no media wars. Naturally, the discussion expos? was presented by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Chairman of CEM, and the panel included Valeria Veleva, Deputy Editor-in-chief of "Presa" newspaper, Radosvet Radev, Owner and Executive Director, Darik Radio AD, Alexander Dourchev, Chairman of BAPRA and Executive Director, All Channels Communication Group, Nikolay Barekov, journalist and anchor man, TV7, Ivo Indzhov, media researcher and expert on mass communications and H.E. James Warlick, United States Ambassador to Bulgaria.

His Excellency James Warlick expressed the opinion that this stage in the media development in our country is natural for any democracy, including the development of democratic media in the USA too, where similar discussions are being held for 250 years now. Media are not only a mirror of public problems, but they create also public feelings and attitudes. A natural choice of every medium and publisher having self-respect is to provide a possibility for every opinion to be expressed and heard with respect and understanding, even if it expresses unshared views.

The right to express one's opinion is one of the basic principles of democracy, and the extent to which it is accessible is a guarantee and proof of the democratism of the medium itself and its owners as well. It is in this sense that the panel dedicated to media wars turned out to be a platform of media freedom in our country.

The media forum ended with presentation of awards for Television Series Festival, and honorary awards of the Forum and Cross Media Forum awards were announced in the meantime.