Media in Bulgaria present children as the victims of violence, without protecting their dignity, participants in a discussion of children in risk because of media presentation said.

Often media name the children victim of violence before investigation was over, hindering the work of the Interior Ministry, representative of child crime department Ivo Manasiev said.

Other discussion participants said that the number of signals, concerning violence against children was worryingly high. The registered cases for 2005 exceed 3000, most of them involving the family of the victims.

Trials for depriving parents of their rights over children were very slow, discussion participants said. At the same time media might learn of the cases and popularise the details before social workers took care of the children, Darik Radio reported.

Other problems included the integration of children with disabilities in society and the spread of child pornography.

Institutions that took part in the discussion included Sofia Municipality, the Culture and Labour and Social Policies ministries, football players Krasimir Balukov and Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgarian representatives to SOS Kinderdorf and UNICEF respectively.