Galery

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Currently, new media are the life-belt of the bright and active Bulgarian citizens. To what extent they will be able to change the overall media environment remains to be seen, but I'm still optimistic because in 2012 I saw with my own eyes how the amateur coverage of what was happening on Orlov Most with phones and cameras on the social networks prevented an important event from being hidden from the general public. The only way is pressure. I mentioned above the initiative of introducing rules at European level, but the everyday pressure by the spirited part of society is the key to success because no rule is effective if people do not believe in it and don’t defend it every day.

What is the role of social networks in developing a civil society which is still to grow?

A key one. Thanks to social networking, civil society has been organised and it is operating now. In the last year, thanks to Facebook and Twitter, I met an unexpectedly large number of people who share with me the same concerns and the same desire for real action.

The communication between people is the key element for the success of any social or political activity. It is not by chance that in Bulgaria, after 1945, all political opponents of the idea were killed in camps or sent into exile so that the establishment of the communist regime was not prevented. My grandfather, Dr. Alexander Vampirski, who was a proponent of Nikola Petkov, was sent far away at the time, to Gotse Delchev, so that he wasn’t able to communicate and organise political activities. Today, thank God, this is impossible and distance is not a problem at all.

Do you think that civic journalism has a future in Bulgaria and, if so, what would it be like?

All indications are that citizen journalism will continue to evolve at least because this is a niche. For example, we have no investigative journalism at the moment. Lords of the Air and Inquiry broadcasted by Nova TV cover mostly domestic life, but no one dares to enter the deep waters of the existing politicians and people with great authority. What is necessary is to jump over this barrier.

You have recently been questioned by Sofia’s investigation services because of the alert submitted by you and a few more activists of the Protest Network to prosecutors against Delyan Peevski, Tsvetan Vassilev and Nikolai Barekov. Why did you decide to submit the alert and do you think that there will be some result after the investigation?

The alert submitted by the 13 of us against Peevski, Vassilev and Barekov contained mostly public information published in national and international media of good reputation. We managed to gather all the pieces of a very complex and sinister puzzle and submitted them to the prosecution for it to decide whether there are some irregularities or a committed crime. It is important that finally each institution to begin doing what we pay it to do.

I believe that there are still responsible, decent and honest professionals who are able to and want to do their job. The lack of courage is visible and perhaps understandable, but we cannot leave gangrene untouched anymore. If you want the state not to perish, a bold surgical procedure needs to be implemented. That is the reason why I have submitted that alert. To inspire trust in the decent and responsible people in the institutions, to let them know they are supported from outside and to show them they have no longer any excuse for inaction. I believe that sooner or later there will come a time when what is good shall prevail both in us and in society as a whole.