/ world today news/ And the second GERB government will try to limit critical publications against politicians and parties.
The Ministry of Justice proposes to make it a crime in the Penal Code (PC) to preach or incite through the media discrimination, violence or hatred based on political affiliation. The foreseen punishment is imprisonment for up to four years and a fine of 5 to 10 thousand BGN. The project has been uploaded for public discussion on the website of the ministry.
Now the existing art. 162 para. 1 states: “Whoever, through speech, print or other means of mass information, through electronic information systems or in any other way, preaches or incites discrimination, violence or hatred based on race, nationality or ethnicity, shall be punished by imprisonment of one to four years and with a fine of five thousand to ten thousand BGN, as well as with public reprimand”. The ministry wants to add “or political affiliation”. Thus, the prosecutor’s office will be given the opportunity to investigate anyone who criticizes political entities, as well as the media in which this happens, writes in tomorrow’s issue of Now.
Interestingly, the amendment slips past the so-called anti-terrorist legislation, the purpose of which is to introduce penalties for training in terrorism and supporters of radical groups passing through Bulgaria. In the reasons, it is written that in this way the propaganda of “criminal attacks on religious or political grounds” will be prevented.
In 2010, the GERB government proposed a similar amendment with a much more general text, which also concealed discrimination based on political affiliation. The intention caused a sharp reaction after opposition MPs and lawyers revealed that journalists who write critically about the rulers will be hit by the law. So the proposal was ultimately not accepted.
The now proposed text has also been criticized by human rights activists for the possibility of being used to limit freedom of speech and self-assault just for critical speech. Lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev commented to Sega that such a text could at least lead to censorship or self-censorship due to fear of punishment. According to him, the amendment could be harmful to political debates in general. “Every politician can say: You criticize me not because I am incompetent, but because I belong to one or another political party,” he explained. Ekimdzhiev added that this text can also be used for self-dealing with political opponents. However, MPs have immunity and cannot be prosecuted for their statements except with special permission from Parliament. Therefore, according to the human rights defender, the blade of this text will fall on journalists.
It is not clear what prompted the Ministry of Justice to specifically add political affiliation as an incitement to discrimination, as no similar cases are known in Bulgarian society. According to lawyers, some politicians may take advantage of the text and complain of discrimination also because they are not covered in the media, for example.
The author of the amendment is a working group at the Ministry of Justice, which includes prosecutors, judges and members of the Supreme Judicial Council. The ministry says the goal is not to limit freedom of speech. “In drafting the text, we were guided by the fact that people should be tolerant towards each other both on the basis of their race, nationality or ethnicity, and on the basis of their political affiliation. Political affiliation alone is never enough , in order to determine the qualities of a person. In the context of the report of “Amnesty International”, according to which the state does not cope with the fight against hate crimes, we believe that people who are discriminated against should receive criminal legal protection. , abused and hated solely on the basis of their political views,” said Deputy Minister of Justice Petko Petkov, head of the working group.
The ministry recalled that the constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, origin, religion, education, beliefs, political affiliation, personal and social status, or property status. However, it does not say that one should go to prison for publications in the media.
Imprisonment of up to 10 years for anyone who enters or leaves the border of Bulgaria to commit terrorist acts is also foreseen by the changes in the Criminal Code. The text is in response to a resolution of the UN Security Council, which called on countries to synchronize their legislation due to the large number of citizens of European countries going to fight on the side of the “Islamic State”. The goal is to limit the free movement of people traveling to participate in terrorist groups, as well as their training, the Ministry of Justice writes. According to the new texts, punishments are provided for anyone who organizes training for terrorists, as well as for those who agree to participate in it. An exception is made only if a participant in such training reports to the authorities. Foreigners who prepare for similar crimes on Bulgarian territory are also threatened with 8 to 10 years in prison.
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