THE Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has written a letter of protest to Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and Justice Minister Anton Stankov about a recent court decision against Bulgarian-language daily newspaper Trud.

SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East Europe, and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI).

Trud Journalist Svetlana Yordanova, Editor-in-Chief Tosho Toshev and publishing house Media Holding were fined 5000 leva following a decision by the Sofia Court of Appeal on July 27.

The decision, which was published on September 7, stemmed from two articles in 1996 about a court case against a former Ministry of Interior official, Nikolai Todorov. In 1999, Todorov submitted an appeal to the court asking for damages from Yordanova, Toshev and the publisher.

SEEMO said that the Sofia City Court and the Sofia Court of Appeal had rejected Todorov's appeal during court proceedings in 2000-2001, saying that the Trud articles were based on "meticulous investigative journalism."

However, the Supreme Court of Cassation returned the case to the Sofia Court of Appeal, which then found the newspaper and the journalists guilty of publishing "unconfirmed information."

SEEMO secretary-general Oliver Vujovic said in his letter to Saxe-Coburg and Stankov that his organisation regarded the court decision as a "clear threat to freedom of expression in Bulgaria".

He asked the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister to do everything in their power to ensure that the decision was reversed.

"SEEMO would also like to remind Your Excellencies that freedom of expression and a safe working environment for journalists are basic principles of any democratic society," Vujovic said.



- Staff Reporter