Statement of the BlueLink’s Executive Board
The executive board and the founders of BlueLink Information Network express protest against the actions of the police on July 12, 2007. On that day Michel Bozgunov was summoned and warned not to publicize upcoming, unauthorized environmental protests (flash mobs) ,in support of the Strandja nature park, through his personal blog…
Blogger arrests hit record high
More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.
Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.
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Case study: Bulgaria
Bloggers, environmentalists and citizen journalists sparked enough civic participation this summer to prevent a national park from becoming trampled upon by developers
When the Bulgarian government decided to allow real estate developers to build a resort in a mountain region known for flourishing ecosystems, unspoiled seaside and small scenic villages this summer, the Bulgarian blogosphere burned with purpose.
They wrote, petitioned and used mobile technologies - Internet and cell phones - to arrange demonstrations.n the end, the civic participation these citizen journalists sparked - even in the face of intimidating police tactics - was enough to persuade the parliament not to allow the developers to break ground in the Strandzha Nature Park.
“The Internet nowadays in Bulgaria has became a major information tool and many people (especially young and intelligent) are using it as a main source for information,” said Milena Bokova, the executive director of BlueLink, a 10-year-old environmental NGO, in an e-mail interview.
“The blogging community and the recent environmental events influence not only the decision makers and the citizens, they also attracted the mainstream media, which covered extensively all events.”
In late June, the government used a legislative loophole to revoke the ‘protected area’ status of the Strandzha Nature Park.
The Supreme Administrative Court, the judiciary of the Republic of Bulgaria, canceled the region’s protected status on 29 June when municipal officials in the seaside town of Tsarevo - the seat of Burgas Province - partnered with a developer to propose construction of an upscale resort just outside Varvara. Varvara, a fishing village with about 300 residents, is located in the Nature Park, directly on the Black Sea.
This mountainous Strandzha region, part of which encompasses the Black Sea coast, is the largest nature park in Bulgaria. In addition to numerous plant life, it includes several ruins and home to villagers who perform Nestinarstvo, traditional fire dancing in which locals walk on burning coals.
Environmental groups and bloggers reacted strongly to the threat of development. They wrote about what was happening. They wrote their representatives, signed petitions, organised demonstrations and sparked flash mobs.
The online community utalised in particular aggregated, blog-heavy sites - like BlueLink. They used BlueLink’s existing infrastructure of daily news feeds, events calendar, video and photo uploading tools and discussion lists to help translate citizen journalism and blogging into civic participation in the form of spontaneous street protests.
“Nowadays many [young people] don’t use the mainstream media (radio, TV, newspapers) as a tool for news and information at all,” Bokova said. “The blogging community reaction is happening as a response to the flash mobs and other actions of environmental activists and citizens for protection of Bulgarian nature from over construction and other non-environmentally friendly business development.”
Some bloggers - and a quick Google search turns up many writing about this issue - like Michel Bozgounov, a web designer and blogger at BlueLink - were questioned at the Sofia Metropolitan Police Department, and investigated by the National Service for Combat against the Organized Crime.
“It seems that the Bulgarian police is more hesitant to pursue journalists, for instance, than bloggers and activists,” Bokova said. “The latter have no protection from a media that stands behind them or any other type of protection (political, financial, whatsoever). Bloggers are easier victims.”
These bloggers and demonstrators did not relent until the country’s parliamentary body, the National Assembly, on 19 July decreed that the protected status of reserves, national and natural parks could not appealed or challenged.
Like BlueLink, the World Wildlife Federation had been working with the case since it recognized the loopholes that were exploited by the developer.
Konstantin Ivanov, a communications officer at the WWF, said it was not until the street protests that the government decided to take action.
“The proposal for this amendment of the Protected Areas Act was submitted to the Parliamentary Commission on the Environment far back in June 2006,” he wrote in an e-mail interview. “Right after the Supreme Administrative Court declared invalid the designation order of another protected area, again at the Black sea coast. This is Kamchiiski Pyasatsi. Despite numerous letters and petitions, nothing happened for a year and three months, until the court decision against Strandzha Nature Park and the street protests that followed.”
Bokova said the parliament’s decision is a victory, one that could not have been won without the work of activists who utalised her site and others to organise.
“The MPs decision to keep Strandja Natural Park as a protected area is perhaps one of the biggest victories of the environmental movement lately,” she says. “An opposite decision would have made a very bad precedent which would have opened the door for similar removal of protected statute of many other natural areas.”
Kathlyn Clore, an associate editor at the EJC, first read about this topic at GlobalVoices.
FreeNet Campaign coverage in Washington D.C. and London
Bulgarian-American human rights blogger discusses freedom of online speech issues at: free.slavo. And our sister organization in London interviews our very own Milena Bokova: GreenNet
BLOGGING GUIDE How to build a successful blog
1. Why the Internet? What do you want to say? What kind of guide is this? We all have news and stories to tell. But the Internet lets us tell our stories to the world. If you want to tell something important to others, this guide will help you. It’s a basic outline that will help you build the machinery that runs your blog: your words and images.
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The Campaign is Spreading!
Read a blog from UK NGO internet.artizans
This blog was written by our Czech supports at Econnect
FreeNet Defends Internet Freedom in Bulgaria
Milena Bukova, Executive Director of the BlueLink Information Network, and here, the “civil environment gateway to Bulgaria,” wrote to tell us about the FreeNet Campaign.
More here
Our friends at Global Voices are also spreading the word.
Visit them at Global Voices website and Global Voices Advocacy Blog.
And don’t forget to read Global Voices Interview with our Executive Director, Milena Bokova
FreeNet Campaign
Bulgaria’s political, private and environmental stakeholders have entered into a battle recently in regards to a controversial decision by the country’s Supreme Administrative Court to remove the protected status of the largest nature park in the Balkans - the Strandja Mountain. The decision has been claimed to favour the interests of a local mayor and businessman, who campaigned for hotel construction project within the park. The construction debate remains ambiguous in decision, with construction initially proclaimed illegal by the court, but…( more)
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