This paper explores the milieu of the establishment of media self-regulatory system in Bulgaria. As one of the former Soviet satellite states, Bulgaria has been in the transformational period since 1989, with its political system from centralized one-party one to a democratic electoral one. So did the changes take place in the economic environment in which Bulgarian media operates. It is concluded that the fierce competition media market and the requirements exerted by European Union that bring about the adoption of Ethical Code of the Bulgarian Media and establishment of National Council for Journalism Ethics in Bulgaria. Hence, the Bulgaria media self-regulatory system is established as the internal and external demands. This paper aims at describing the process of the formation of the system in order to provide references for future studies on media self-regulation in transitional country.