Rules of Journalistic Ethics, adopted by the Tenth Congress of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists on 6 March 1994.

The indestructible right of information, freedom of expression and criticism, the indestructible right of man to be informed about facts and opinions, constitute the basis of the rights and duties of journalists.

As the journalist takes on the great civic responsibility of his/her profession, he/she defends freedom of expression, maintains true independence of his/her political views, beliefs and biases. The journalist bears the entire responsibility for his/her works – signed or not, published or broadcast. In his/her work the journalist observes the norms of journalistic ethics, limited by the following rules:

1. The journalist does not let his/her works contribute to conflicts due to racial, ethnic, religious, or class differences; does not use words violating human dignity; does not oppose, but helps, people who feel they have been treated unfairly by his/her work and news organisation to answer and show their side of the story on the same page or in the same news program; does not allow his/her work to appear distorted; does not permit comments to slant the truth; does not present only part of the facts, which are known to achieve one-sided coverage of an event or a process.

2. The journalist does not abuse freedom of expression and the opportunities provided by the profession for his/her own profit, for maintaining personal relationships and satisfying personal ambitions, for profiting in any way of him/herself or other people and organisations; does not use his/her name and the profession for advertising and commercial purposes.

3. The journalist does not use dishonest means for gathering information; does not violate the right of privacy; except in cases when this would benefit society in an extraordinary way; does not plagiarize, always cites the author of used or mimeographed work; does not act to harm his/her sources; does not take advantage of the honesty and suffering of people covered by his/her stories; does not reveal the identity of criminals under age or victims of crime.

4. The journalist does not accept tasks incompatible with his/her professional dignity, does not hamper his/her colleagues from gathering of information; does not offer his/her service to news sources for unsatisfactory conditions in order to prevent a colleague from gathering information.

5.The journalist does not put him/herself in the service of intelligence services.