Boyko Rashkov, interior minister in two of President Radev’s cabinets and in Petkov’s regular cabinet, is on the US State Department’s negative list for gross violations of freedom of speech and harassment of journalists.
This is what the journalist Sonya Koltuklieva wrote in her profile on the social network “Facebook”. Here is what she wrote:
“Well, fellow journalists, won’t you boycott the abuser ?! Or will you continue to be comfortable not asking him awkward questions ?!
Will you serve and serve until he runs over you ?!
“Honor is that invisible bone that keeps the head upright” (Stephen King).
Raise your heads
In the meantime, more information has emerged about the report to which the journalist refers.
It talks about “significant human rights problems, which include credible reports of: police violence, including abuse of freedom of assembly; arbitrary arrests; serious problems with judicial independence; severe restrictions on free expression, including violence and threats of violence against journalists and corporate and political pressure on the media; serious corruption; intolerance and discrimination against Roma; violence against children; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence against sexual minorities, “the report, published on the State Department’s website, said.
According to the report the authorities have taken steps to prosecute and punish officials who have committed human rights violations and corruption, but government action is insufficient and impunity remains a problem.
Police violence
According to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) the police physically mistreated detainees with impunity and the practice was widespread. The BHC cited its own survey, which found that one-third of detainees at a Burgas police station complained of physical violence, including electric shock.
The purpose was to extract information. In August, the Prosecutor General reported to the National Assembly that 12 of the 15 investigations into police violence in connection with police violence during the 2020 anti-government protests had been terminated due to lack of evidence, while the other three continued.
Conditions in some prisons and detention centers continue to be poor, but NGOs noted positive changes. There have been reports of overcrowding in some places of detention, corruption in prison staff and inadequate sanitation, living and medical conditions.
Media freedom
The constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right, the report said.
However, fears remain that corporate and political pressures, an inefficient and corrupt judiciary and non-transparent government regulation of resources to support the media (including EU funds) are seriously undermining media pluralism.
In April, Amnesty International stated in its Report on the State of Human Rights in the World that “media freedom continues to deteriorate, with journalists investigating organized crime and corruption facing strong political and prosecutorial pressure in the form of threats and intimidation“.
In September, Reporters Without Borders (known by its French acronym RSF) said the media environment was marked by “physical attacks and defamation campaigns against journalists; impunity for crimes of violence against reporters and harassment; public media bias, especially on the eve of the elections; corruption, misinformation and lack of transparency regarding media ownership; media pluralism threatened by concentration of property; as well as bias and non-transparency in the distribution of state aid to the media, to the detriment of the independent media. “
According to the BHC, freedom of expression “further deteriorates” and is marked by “record low levels of independent funding and trust in the media“which makes the independent media” easy prey for owners who have political or economic ties to the government “and so they can define and guide public discourse.
According to the RSF, “few outspoken journalists are constantly subjected not only to defamation campaigns and harassment by the state, but also to intimidation and violence.” In its annual report for 2020, presented in May, the BHC expressed “concern” over “the state’s attempts to cover up facts through repression, as well as its blatant refusal to investigate and punish attacks on journalists”.
Domestic and international organizations have criticized both print and electronic media for editorial bias, lack of transparency in their funding and ownership, and susceptibility to political influence and economic incentives..
Despite the legal requirement to disclose media ownership, many media outlets did not comply, and information on media ownership was not fully publicly available.
Refugee rights
On the rights of refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports cases of violence, robbery and degrading practices against migrants and asylum seekers on the border with Turkey.
The BHC claims that the government detains migrants and asylum seekers only when their detention cannot be avoided, such as in areas monitored by NGOs, as well as on trains, but otherwise pushes everyone back.
Corruption
The State Department has also criticized the fight against corruption. The report says, “The prosecutor’s office said it had worked on 274 pre-trial investigations in 2020, which resulted in 17 indictments against 56 people and five convictions.
In July, the NGO Anti-Corruption Fund announced that it had overseen investigations against 63 high-ranking former ministers, deputy ministers, deputies, magistrates, mayors and regional governors over the past five years. The Anti-Corruption Fund has also seen a drop in anti-corruption prosecutions with zero sentences. “
In June, caretaker government ministers announced that contracts worth BGN 8.6 billion (more than 40 percent) awarded by state-owned companies to the previous government in 2019 used in-house procedures and did not go through public procurement procedures. .
The Minister of Regional Development gave an example in which the former government has allocated over 1.5 billion levs to the state-owned company Avtomagistrali, which has donated a large part of the money to private companies as advance payments for projects that have not started.
Domestic violence and women’s rights
According to the NGO Center for Creative Justice the law does not provide sufficient protection for victims of domestic violence. The Ombudsman of Bulgaria criticized the legal provisions that exempt the offender from criminal prosecution for inflicting moderate bodily harm (such as a broken tooth) or more serious injury, such as intentionally infecting a person with a sexually transmitted disease.
Women in poor rural and Roma communities have less access to contraception due to poverty and lack of information and education. Contract costs are not covered by health insurance. People under the age of 16 cannot make an appointment with a gynecologist or take an HIV test without their parents’ consent.
Roma NGOs said many municipalities set discriminatory requirements for access to health services to restrict Roma women’s access to them.
Ethnic discrimination
“Public intolerance of minority groups persists and manifests itself in frequent discrimination against Roma and ethnic Turks. Political and government officials sometimes approve or encourage it.
Human rights groups say racial discrimination against Roma has increased during the coronavirus emergency. The media often described Roma and other minority groups using discriminatory, degrading and insulting language, citing cases in which Roma had committed a crime.
Nationalist parties such as Ataka, VMRO-BND, Vazrazhdane and the National Salvation Front of Bulgaria (NFSB) routinely resort to harsh anti-Roma, anti-Turkish and anti-Semitic slogans and rhetoric.
In June, a survey commissioned by Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation found growing ethnocentrism and “indications of potential racism”, with only 22 per cent of respondents wanting to live with Turks and 15 per cent with Roma, while 15 per cent willing to have a family. relations with Turks and 5 per cent with Roma, “the report said.
The law forbids ethnic segregation in multiethnic schools and kindergartens, but allows ethnic segregation of entire schools. Of the Roma children, 30 per cent (compared to 16 per cent five years earlier) were enrolled in segregated schools outside mainstream education, according to the European Roma Rights Center.
According to the NGO Amalipe, there are segregated schools in 26 of the country’s 28 regions, and approximately 10 percent of the country’s general education schools have been ethnically segregated. Roma children often attend de facto segregated schools where they receive lower education.
There have been cases of ethnic Bulgarian students withdrawing from desegregated schools, thus effectively resegregating them. Roma NGOs report that many schools across the country refused to enroll Roma students.
Persons with disabilities
People with disabilities do not have access to education, health services, public buildings and transport on an equal basis with others.
The law protects the rights of people with physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities, including their access to health services, education, employment, housing, public infrastructure, transport, sporting and cultural events, social and political events, the judiciary, and other services. but the government has not effectively implemented these provisions.
According to NGOs, the ongoing deinstitutionalization, which was intended to be a copy of such a reform of children’s institutions, has failed to reintegrate people with disabilities into the community.
Instead, the government has allocated local and European resources for institutional care. Reports continue physical abuse, the use of mechanical restraints and ill-treatment of people with cognitive and mental disabilities in psychiatric hospitals and social care homes.
Discrimination against sexual minorities
The State Department’s doylad also talks about violence and discrimination against people of different sexual orientationsgiving an example of holding “counter-marches” against pre-announced public events organized by the LGBTI community, during which objects and smoke were thrown.
There was also a report of abuse of a 15-year-old student in Plovdiv because he “had a gay voice”. The positions of some parties and political leaders are also noted, citing the example of VMRO-BND and politician Boyan Rasate.
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