By decision of 18 March 2014, the Administrative Court Sofia – City (ACSC) repealed the Supreme Judicial Council’s refusal to provide to Dorotheya Dachkova (journalist from “Sega” newspaper) information on, the current MP, Delyan Peevski’s work in the Sofia Investigation Service and his magistrate status. The refusal was based on the grounds that the Member of Parliament had not given his explicit consent to disclosure of the information.
The refusal was challenged with the legal help of Access to Information Programme.
The ACSC held that information on the professional activity of magistrates in Bulgaria, including the data on acquiring immovability, attestations, workload, the results of oversight by higher judicial instances and others are public information. This is information relating wholly to the magistrate’s work, which under current law are indicators of the quality and quantity of ongoing work. Activities of the judiciary as a whole have received increased public attention, in an atmosphere of sensitization of the public towards the judiciary’s problems. Each magistrate should be aware that there is no aspect of their professional activity that may be hidden from the public.