As of September 2 2008, BBC World Service has stopped broadcasting in Bulgaria. The radio station, accessible at 91.0 FM in Sofia, started operations in the country in 1940.

From today, the BBC's English-language services will be available online at bbc.com/worldservice and via the Hotbird 2 direct to home satellite service.

In an embassy press statement, British ambassador to Bulgaria Steve Williams said: "I am sorry that the BBC World Service will stop broadcasting in Bulgaria on FM radio. Like other listeners, I will miss the high quality, impartial and comprehensive broadcasts."

According to an August 24 article on kafene.net, the decision for early termination of the radio's broadcasting contract was taken by the Bulgarian Council of Electronic Media (CEM) on June 6 2008, following a three-year effort of Bulgarian administration through CEM to deprive the BBC of its Sofia frequency. According to "people in the know", as written in an August 21 article on bgfactor.org, media magnates had shown interest in the radio.

The kafene.net article specified this "interest" as coming from Radiocompany CJ, connected to Bulgarian media and advertisement tycoon Krassimir Guergov.

The BBC was reported to have combated these CEM efforts, but eventually decided to give in, so as to stop spending money on the case. This is the only time that the World Service has, be it voluntarily, be it under force from local governance, closed down operations in a European capital city.

Claims on the BBC's Sofia radio frequency started immediately after the Bulgarian editorial office of the World Service TV shut doors in October 2005, though the overall issue dates to the year 2000. The decision to stop television broadcasts came on behalf of the BBC World Service general directorate to close its television stations in 10 countries, so as to finance the creation of an Arabic TV station.

According to Bulgarian legislation, only Bulgarian-language programmes - TV, radio, etc - are allowed to be broadcast in Bulgaria; following the end of BBC World Service television in Bulgaria, the only programmes that the BBC had in the country were in English.

In the article on kafene.net, CEM president Maria Stefanova defended the council's decision, saying that CEM was obliged to protect Bulgaria's national interests and to keep the country's laws, thus not allowing broadcasts in foreign languages.

Cable TV channels tend to circumvent this law with claims that, as cable operations, they do not fall under laws related to terrestrial broadcasts.

Among the journalists who have worked with the BBC's Bulgarian outfit was Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian defector pricked by a poison-tipped umbrella in London on September 7 1978; he died four days later.