The Association of European Journalists Bulgaria is following with concern the unfolding full-scale attack on the site BIRD and the journalists writing there. A series of cases have been filed against them by Razmig Tchakarian AKA Ami, who is connected to the former VIS criminal group. In addition, the state prosecutor’s office has been conducting a blackening campaign against journalist Dimitar Stoyanov for the past three weeks, which has reached an unprecedented level of publishing his working communication with a source.

The context is known – a conflict between criminal bosses who have terminated their long-standing partnership, creating an impression that the prosecutor’s office is taking sides. Anyone who does not support the side embraced by the state prosecution becomes an enemy of the chief prosecutor. We have seen this with the cases of the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB), Vasil Bozhkov AKA “The Skull” vs the Naidenovi brothers. We see it with Karo and Taki /Note of the translator: Hristoforos Amanatidis AKA Taki and Krasimir Kamenov AKA Karo are two well known criminal bosses who worked together for decades/.

A check by the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) showed that a total of six lawsuits have been filed against journalists Dimitar Stoyanov and Atanas Tchobanov from BIRD.BG, and their colleague from Bivol.bg, Nikolay Marchenko, in the Sofia District Court. The plaintiff in all cases is the same – Razmig Tchakarian AKA Ami. Each lawsuit is for 10,000 Bulgarian Lev. The AEJ has reviewed two of the lawsuit petitions, which have already been received by the defendants. They target publications related to the infrastructure around the Europe largest boarder crossing “Captain Andreevo,” widespread suspicions of serious corruption practices in the public sphere, as well as those related to suspicions surrounding the murder of crypto queen Ruja Ignatova.

The almost simultaneous filing of a series of lawsuits with identical parties for publications made in a short period of time in the same media outlet is a serious indicator of “SLAPP lawsuits” (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), which are intended to restrict public participation.

The series of civil cases filed by Tchakarian coincides with another offensive – that of the state prosecution. In a press release on April 7, 2023, the prosecution disseminated a series of allegations, as well as personal communication between journalist Dimitar Stoyanov, from the BIRD website, and his information source, who has been detained on charges of drug possession. The Friday announcement is a continuation of the prosecution’s press conference on March 16, 2023, when similar allegations were made with the projection of a criminal-grotesque plot.

It is important to recall that in order to do their work, which by definition is in the public interest, journalists work and communicate with a wide range of sources. It is possible that these sources may be convicted or under investigation, especially if the journalists’ work involves exposing organized crime or corruption. In order to gain the trust of their sources, journalists themselves choose how they will communicate with them. In order to gain the trust of their sources, journalists themselves choose how they will communicate with them.

The guiding principle in the work of journalists should be the public interest. Here are a few examples of matters of public interest:

The fate of the crypto queen Rouzha Ignatova is a matter of public interest.

• The question of whether there was a prosecutor’s or police umbrella over Ignatova is of public interest.
• Whether senior police officers maintain connections with prominent figures in the criminal underworld is a matter of public interest.
• And finally, what is happening at the largest border crossing of the European Union /Captain Andreevo/ is also a matter of public interest.

All of these topics are the subject of articles published on the website that features the work of Dimitar Stoyanov.

The gratuitous publication by the prosecution of photos from the communication of journalist Dimitar Stoyanov is an unscrupulous violation of the journalistic sources’ confidentiality. Conversations between journalists and sources are not inherently criminal. The dramatic construct of an “organized criminal group to discredit the chief prosecutor” cannot justify such a scandalous action, which not only endangers Stoyanov but also serves as a warning to every journalist and their sources.

It is worth noting that since 2019, this is at least the third example of the prosecution playing this choreography. Despite claims that the projected chats, conversations, etc. prove serious crimes, so far in previous cases, there have been no convictions. There is not even a valid indictment (here, here or here).

With such achievements, it is difficult for the prosecution to convince that the case in which Stoyanov’s communication was made public will even reach trial, i.e., the goals of the audio-visual interpretation are outside the mandate defined by the Constitution for the prosecution to bring charges and deliver criminals to court.

The AEJ insists that the prosecution immediately ceases attempts to discredit journalists simply because they do not like their publications and to stop the practice of exposing journalistic sources.