Information newsletter
Issue 2(14), February 2005

News, news, news
Prepared by Diana Bancheva, AIP

The Big Brother anti-awards for violation of privacy will be given at the end of March, Access to Information Programme and Internet Society Bulgaria, the organizers of the event, announced at a press conference. Nominations for the award can be posted at: http://bg.bigbrotherawards.org till the end of the month. Awards will be presented in three categories: the worst public institution; the worst public official; and the most aggressive private company. The first ceremony of the Big Brother awards was held in 2003. Winners in six categories were awarded then.

On 7 February, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that AIP should be compensated for all expenses with regard to the court proceedings against the refusal of the Council of Ministers to disclose an already repealed document, which was illegally refused with the motive of confidentiality three years ago.

On 9 February, the Sofia City Court ruled that the Head of the Administration of the Ministry of Environment and Waters should immediately send written explanation why they had not followed the obligatory prescriptions of the court. The proceedings were initiated after the NGO “For the Earth” submitted an appeal against the refusal of the Ministry to provide minutes from the public debates on big infrastructure projects financed by the ISPA program of the European Union.

On February 14 the three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court reviewed the appeal of Vassil Chobanov, a Radio New Europe journalist, who had been refused access to minutes from a 2003 Council of Ministers session. The appellant wanted to learn the positions of the ministers connected with the privatization of a strategic Bulgarian company. The journalist had no right to receive such information, the Council of Minsiters insisted, since it was contained in preliminary documents and had no significance on its own. The court is supposed to issue a decision within the legally prescribed term of one month.

On February 9, 2005 the Council of Ministers introduced to Parliament amendments to the Protection of Classified Information Act. This happened only after the Cabinet had officially informed AIP that it will put off sending the text of the amendments to the Parliament, because work had to be coordinated with different ministries. Despite serious public criticism, including from AIP, the Council of Ministers insists on legalizing the destruction of classified documents. The amendments were discussed in the leading Committee of Internal Security and Public Order. The suggestion which caused most heated debate was that access to classified information should only be guaranteed to the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament, although he is primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Parliament. The sponsors of the amendments suggested that the rest of the 239 MPs would have to go through an investigation before accessing classified documents.