Global Voices » Bulgaria

Bulgaria: Thousands Take Part in Anti-ACTA Protests

Rayna St. — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:03:43 +0000

Hundreds of anti-ACTA protests were scheduled all over Europe for Saturday, Feb. 11.

Bulgaria was no exception.

On Friday, a video [bg] calling for people to stand up against the controversial treaty was posted in the Facebook group Ние казваме “НЕ” на ACTA! / Bulgaria says “NO” to ACTA!.

On Saturday morning, the demonstrations in Bulgaria began, with hundreds gathering in front of the National Cultural Centre in the capital city of Sofia. The crowd rapidly grew, as people were marching towards the political navel of the country. (Indeed, in Sofia, the Cabinet's building, the Parliament and the Presidential palace face each other in the very centre of the capital.)

A huge crowd walking towards the Parliament in Sofia, Bulgaria, during the Feb. 11 anti-ACTA protest. Photo by Ruslan Trad (CC-by-SA 3.0)

Global Voices author Ruslan Trad was live-streaming the protests, along with netizen Asen Genov. A video of the protesters marching ahead, by YouTube user selin4eto, is here.

People were in a great mood, despite the cold (-6°C in Sofia and streets covered with snow). User @kislorot (Anton Georgiev) tweeted [bg]:

Полицията е задържала мъж с 0,5 грама торенти.

The police has arrested a man with 0.5g of torrents.

A nice poster in the middle of the anti-ACTA rally in Sofia. Photo by Ruslan Trad (CC-by-SA 3.0)

According to one of the protesters (@reguligence, Emil A. Georgiev), there were between 5,000 and 10,000 people only in Sofia:

The anti-#ACTA protest in #Sofia went well and peacefull, for the first time in years a number between 5000-10000 gathered. #stopacta

Bulgarian blogger Eneya Worodecky distributed books she could not keep at home due to lack of space. She announced this great initiative - Дарете книга, спрете ACTA/Stop ACTA, share a book [bg] - on her blog:

Можете да дарите книги. Идеята на много компании е, че вие по-скоро сте заели за временно ползване музиката/филмите/сериалите/програмите, които използвате, че не са ваши и не можете да правите с тях каквото прецените. Само че книгите са си ваши. Вие може да ги подарите на когото решите, независимо че според идеите на АСТА това може да се погледне като нарушаване на авторските права.

Затова това, което можете да направите е, съберете книги и ги раздайте. Единственото условие е да напишете на първата страница или да сложите листче защо го правите.

You can donate books. The idea of many companies is that you rather have borrowed for temporary use the music/movies/serials/programs you use, that is they are not yours and you cannot do with them whatever you want to. But the books are yours. You can gift them to whomever you choose, although, according to ACTA's ideas, it can be seen as copyright infringement.

So what you can do is collect books and distribute them. The only condition is to write on the first page or put a piece of paper in why you're doing so.

According to Worodecky, she offered ten books to people in the streets during this morning's demonstration in Sofia, and people were greatly astonished but very happy. She is currently searching for those who got the books offered, to post pictures of them, and she is inviting other people to offer, be it books or anything else they wish to offer.

: “I am searching for people who got books offered today :) Hey, if you are one of them, make a pic and upload it. And you too, offer a book or anything you like. :) (Credit: screenshot by the author)”

Sofia was not the only city to see protests spreading: they took place in 14 other cities and towns in Bulgaria. Plovdiv, the second largest city, saw 400-500 people marching to say “No” to ACTA.

User @ivaylovs reported [bg]:

В Пловдив беше супер. Една жена попита, това протеста за #ACTA ли е? Аз казах - май този е ПРОТИВ. Може да не бяхме 4 хл., а 400, но бяхме.

It was great in Plovdiv. A woman asked: is this the protest for #ACTA? I said: seems like this one is AGAINST. We weren't 4,000, we were only 400, but we were there.

(In the end, it seems there was more like a thousand of them, rather than 400.)

Varna (photos by Valentin Stoykov are here), Pernik, and Burgas also witnessed the demonstrations, despite the cold. A famous Bulgarian writer, screenwriter and politician Lyuben Dilov, Jr. [bg] was one of those who joined the protests in Burgas, stating that the ACTA was harmful for creators, for culture in general and for the society as a whole.

As the demonstrations were taking place, many people - such as @Plamy [bg] - complained about silence in the mainstream media:

Не мога да повярвам, че хората се вдигат да протестират срещу нещо, което има толкова голямо значение за всички, а “МЕДИИТЕ” мълчат като РИБИ

I cannot believe it that people have risen and are protesting against something that is so very important for everyone, but the “MEDIA” are as silent as FISH are.

Indeed, only three online editions talked about the anti-ACTA mobilization. Furthermore, one of the principal TV channels, bTV (formerly owned by Rupert Murdoch), dedicated very little time to the ongoing protest - and were duly criticised and mocked by netizens, such as @LuboAlamanov [bg]:

Хехе, бТВ дават за хурки, но само споменаха, че “в 15 града има протести”. Фън! :)))

Hehe, bTV is telling about distaffs, but only mentioned that “there are protests in 15 towns.” Fun! :)))

In front of the People's Assembly. The writing on the building reads: "Unity makes strength". Photo by Ruslan Trad (CC-by-SA 3.0)

In the end, people were even more motivated to stand against the treaty.

User @yradunchev (Yordan Radunchev) wrote [bg]:

прибрах се. краката ми са ледени, но ми е топло от вътре. толкова много хора не съм очаквал. #ACTA няма да я бъде, ако действаме все така.

Back home. My feet are frozen, but I feel warm inside. I didn't expect so many people. #ACTA won't make it if we all act this way.

User @yovko (Yovko Lambrev) added [bg]:

Има надежда! Никога не съм си представял, че толкова много хора в този кучи студ ще излязат в защита на Интернет! #ACTA #fb

There is hope! I never thought that so many people in this bitchy cold would go out to defend the Internet! #ACTA #fb

On his blog Tabakoff.eu [bg], Dimitar Tabakov swiftly uploaded his pictures from Sofia. At the end of the posting, he pointed out:

Добре щеше да е някой народен представител да излезне и да каже нещо, но уви, толкова им е достойнството.

It would have been good if some MP had come out and said something, but, alas, this is how far their dignity goes.

Indeed, no official declaration has been issued so far. Will the government take into account the people's “NO” - or will they pass over and adopt the unpopular regulation anyway?

And even though much remains to be done, Saturday's mobilization has definitely showed a breach in the Bulgarians' apathy wall.

Bulgaria: Human Rights Organizations Against a Neo-Nazi March

Ruslan Trad — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:27:18 +0000

The civic initiative “People Against Racism” is appealing [en] to the Municipality of Sofia and the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria with the request to ban an international neo-Nazi racist conference scheduled for Feb. 17 and a neo-Nazi torchlight procession known as the “Lukov March” on Feb. 18. Every year since 2005, Bulgaria's far-right, neo-Nazi, and ultra-nationalist groups have commemorated the death of Gen. Hristo Lukov, who supported Nazi Germany during WWII. Lukov March 2011 drew protests from many civic groups and human rights organizations, including the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith, and People Against Racism. (More about Lukov March; a 2010 video.)

Bulgaria: Severe Flooding Emergency

Veronica Khokhlova — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:57:45 +0000

GV Author Ruslan Trad is tweeting - here, here, here, and here - about the severe flooding in southern Bulgaria, which was caused by heavy rainfall of the past few days and has killed at least eight people in the village of Bisser. The latest tweet came about an hour ago: “Breaking: Maritsa River’s dike broke close to the village of Generalovo, municipality of Svilenhrad, huge wave.” More photos from the disaster in the village of Bisser - at the Facebook page [bg] of the Bulgarian National TV's fundraising effort to help the victims.

Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Danica Radisic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:22 +0000

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow.

Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12).

Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas.

In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday:

27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages.

Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things.

Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region.

Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area.

Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region.

The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels:

- via SMS to +387644218661
- via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje
- via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net
- or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page

If you would like to volunteer your time to help map critical areas and are familiar with using online tools, please contact the author of this article, or Haris Alisic via Twitter, or leave a comment here on Global Voices, and we will contact you for more information on what you can do to help. We also ask that you all begin reporting from your area on Twitter and using the above-mentioned hashtags on Twitter, which are automatically collected by the platform and then reviewed and verified by Al Jazeera and volunteers.

Bulgaria: Protests Against Shale Gas Exploration

Ruslan Trad — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:57:50 +0000

On Jan. 14, some 15,000 protesters came out in the streets of at least 12 Bulgarian cities, as well as in London, Paris and Copenhagen, to call for a moratorium on shale gas tests through hydraulic fracturing and to demand a new law that would ban this potentially dangerous practice. Facebook group “We are against a Bulgarian Chernobyl - shale gas exploration” [bg] now has nearly 56,000 members; a photo from the rally in Sofia, posted by one of the group's members, is here. One of the videos from the rally is here.

Hungary: President Accused of Plagiarism

Marietta Le — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:45:18 +0000

Vastagbőr blog collected [hu] some internet memes about the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, the newest of which appeared after hvg.hu news site published an article titled ‘Serious Suspicion of Plagiarism in Pál Schmitt's Ph.D. Dissertation‘ [hu]. According to hvg.hu, the President had allegedly plagiarized his dissertation ('Analysis of the Modern Olympic Games Program') from the text of a Bulgarian sports expert Nikolai Georgiev. The Presidential Office claims [hu] that Schmitt and Georgiev knew each other well personally, collaborated and used the same sources.

CEE: A Roundup on the Roma Issues

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:51:27 +0000

An anti-discrimination Roma flash mob/dance duel in Bucharest (video - here), and a report by Bulgarian Roma students on media coverage of Roma-related issues - at TOL's Roma Transitions blog. Education for the Roma children in the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - at the Economist's Eastern Approaches blog. (Update: TOL's East of Center also has a post on “the Czech Republic’s segregated education policy” for the Roma students.)

CEE: “Spotted by Locals”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:08:32 +0000

Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted House – Armenian Neighbourhood; from Sofia, Bulgaria: Nissim – A True Old-School Bookstore.

CEE: Getting “Abnormal For A Change”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:57:35 +0000

East of Center writes about “Eastern Europe’s ‘obsession with normality'” and suggests this New Year’s resolution: “In the true spirit of Václav Havel, why don’t we get abnormal for a change?”

Macedonia: Ajvar, Glorified

Filip Stojanovski — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:03:54 +0000

Jovana Tozija wrote lovingly about making ajvar, a traditional favorite winter provision in Macedonia and some other post-Ottoman countries.

Bulgaria: 30,000 Protest Against Cuts and Pension Reform

Ruslan Trad — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:30:16 +0000

According to the trade unions, between 25,000 and 30,000 people protested in Sofia on Wednesday against the new pension reform, social cuts and the cancellation of the majority of trains in the country (a photo; videos - here and here). The police sent to contain the rally supported the people's demands by wearing ribbons in the colors of the Bulgarian national flag on their uniforms. MPs from the ruling party tried to talk with the protestors, but were booed. The protests will continue because of the cancelation of talks between the government and the trade unions.

Bulgaria: New Protest Against Shale Gas Planned

Ruslan Trad — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:41:16 +0000

A new protest is being planned for Nov. 26 in Sofia, part of a series of protests against Chevron's shale gas extraction in northeast Bulgaria. On Nov. 20, nearly 500 people attended a rally in the coastal city of Varna, which didn't receive adequate media coverage. Several Facebook groups have been created: Sofia: BULGARIA can count on us - not shale gas! [bg, 740 members], We are against a Bulgarian Chernobyl - shale gas extraction [bg, 30,815 members].

Bulgaria: Protest Against Shale Gas Extraction

Ruslan Trad — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:05:38 +0000

The Nov. 16 protest against Chevron's extraction of shale gas in northeast Bulgaria had been organized through Facebook event. The poster on this photo reads: “Why did you sign, Boyko [PM Borisov's first name] - out of stubbornness?” Protesters chanted slogans against the government, calling them “traitors” because of the signed agreement for extraction of shale gas.

Bulgaria: #OccupyBulgaria on Oct. 15

Ruslan Trad — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:24:02 +0000

Bulgarian activists announced that they would join in the global #Ocuppy action on Oct. 15. There is a Facebook event and a group call for action, real democracy and #OccupyBulgaria. The activists have been inspired by the protests in Greece, the United States and Spain.

Bulgaria: Clashes Between Roma and Ethnic Bulgarians in Katunitsa

Ruslan Trad — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:55:39 +0000

Violent clashes in the Bulgarian village of Katunitsa, near Plovdiv, broke out Friday night, following the death of a 19-year-old ethnic Bulgarian local, Angel Petrov, who had been run over by a vehicle driven by a man linked to the local Roma clan leader.

According to Focus Information Agency:

127 people were arrested in the southern village of Katunitsa where Bulgarian and Roma communities entered into clashes, following a fatal road accident involving relatives of a Roma boss - Kiril Rashkov, dubbed Tsar Kiro. The arrested were indicted for vandalism, arson and numerous other offences.

The clashes involving some 2,000 people started when relatives of a teenager who was run over by a Rashkov family vehicle attacked the Roma patriarch's home. Another person died and five others were injured.

Three policemen and two civilians were hurt in the riots, while a 16-year-old at the scene who suffered from heart problems was taken to hospital, where he later died. […]

Online responses to the riots reflect very well the dangerous tensions on the ground.

On Facebook, there is a page [bg] demanding death to the Roma boss Kiril Rashkov (”An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.)” - and more than 23,000 people appear to “like” this cause.

One of the page members wrote:

We are Bulgarians, we are in Bulgaria - enough of this torment! In our own country we feel as foreigners! They want war? We will give them war!

Another Facebook page [bg] has been created in support of the ethnic Bulgarian rioters arrested in Katunitsa - as of now, 41,001 people have “liked” this page.

Riot police in the village of Katunitsa. Photo by Georgi Kozhuharov/Dnevnik.bg, used with permission.

Hot debates are taking place elsewhere on Facebook as well. On the Anti-Racism Movement in Bulgaria page, people have reported more than ten pages and groups with hate-speech content. One member of the Anti-Racism Movement wrote [bg]:

Racism is awful because of the association of ethnicity with crime. There is a proverb saying “Because of our Elijah, I started to hate Saint Elijah” [”Pokrai nash Iliq namrazih i Sveti Iliq.”] Rashkov (Tzar Kiro) is one of the many criminals and traffickers in Bulgaria and he uses the ethnicity trump card without a second thought. If the authorities take care of this kind of criminals by legal means then this will reduce many times the ethnicity tensions, which are created by the same criminals to affirm their control over the given minority.

One of the places where people are organizing protests against the Roma people is the Facebook fan page [bg] of the football team “Botev” (Plovdiv). One of the fan group's members wrote this [bg]:

The dirty Roma scum must be cleaned!

On the Bulgarian blog Bai Dalai [bg], the author wrote another opinion:

It is easy to see that this is an uprising against the painful social injustices, against the fact that the authorities are protecting the rich criminals but they are unable to provide basic security for the common people.

On Twitter, @lazarov (Alexei Lazarov) wrote [bg]:

Racial clashes in Katunitsa, Putin will run for president again - time sometimes seems to be moving backwards.