When a TV station announces a new job structure, a new programme schedule and a reshuffle of positions, you expect changes across the whole house. At Telma, according to the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM), the reorganisation has exactly one target: veteran editor and journalist Bobi Hristov, whose position is being abolished entirely and declared redundant.

The union says that after a full day of communication, reviewing the case and consulting its legal team, it is standing fully behind its member. According to the notice SSNM received, Telma is starting a redundancy process, together with a new programme schedule and a reallocation of positions. What is worrying, the union says, is that the reorganisation targets only one person.

"SSNM believes that serious structural changes like these, in media whose task is to protect the public interest, must be carried out carefully, in line with all legal regulations, and with an awareness of how fragile the situation in the media sphere is," the union's statement reads. It warns that this is happening at a time when the media are short of new staff and, above all, of independent journalists with credibility.

Under the logic of the law, redundancy means a job has become unnecessary because of changes in organisation or technology. When only one name ends up under that heading, and that name belongs to a seasoned journalist, the question asks itself: is this a reorganisation, or a message to everyone who is left? SSNM has called on Telma's management to reconsider the decision. The answer will show which of the two it is.