In Sofia, 14 billboards with photos of Azis and Kitaetsa were taken down on November 21, because they were "scandalous".
The same happened in Plovdiv, Kyustendil and Pernik, Dnevnik daily said.

Kitaetsa is the nick-name of the partner of pop-folk singer Azis. The two have been open about their homosexual relationship.
On the billboard, the two were shown in, what has been said to be a homo-erotic pose.

The billboards were advertisement for TV2, a new television station slated to start in late November 2007, Dnevnik dialy said.
Behind the advertisement and the new television station was Bulgarian advertisement mogul Krasimir Gergov.

Removal of the billboards was initiated by the Sofia municipality and personally by Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, claiming "negative reaction in society" and complaints the municipality received. The billboards were owned by different companies, which had contracts with the municipality and sold the advertisement space to agencies, head of advertisement department at the municipality, Evgeni Radev, said.

The municipality asked the agencies to take down the billboards and the agencies co-operated. The municipality itself does not have the right to take down billboards, Dnevnik daily said.

This was the second billboard with pop-folk singer Azis that has been taken down by Borissov.

Balkan News Outdoors, which put up the posters, said it did not believe the posters were pornographic.

Media experts said this was a case of homophobia as even more vulgar billboards were not taken down.

"The row is of course part of the plan behind the Azis and Kitaetsa billboard," Georgi Lozanov, representative of the Bulgarian Media Coalition, said.