In the past few days, fifteen years and nine days after the fall of communism in Bulgaria, the prosecutor's office launched two cases against journalists - the Romanian television journalist George Buhnici and the BBC investigative reporter Justin Rowlatt.

In both cases the prosecution is basing the case on the very controversial Article 339a of the Penal Code. According to it "whoever, without the proper permission required by law, produces, uses, sells or keeps a special technical device intended for secretive gathering of information, is punished with up to three years imprisonment."

Rowlatt is charged under article 339a and 307 for inciting corruption because of his documentary film 'Buying the Games,' in which he used a hidden camera to expose the then-chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, Ivan Slavkov, as a person inclined to take bribes.

As a result of the film, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) temporarily suspended Slavkov's membership and is yet to decide on whether the measure should be permanent.

Several weeks after the incident, the media reported that the Prosecutor-General Nikola Filchev personally promised Slavkov to launch a case against the BBC reporter.

Buhnici, who was arrested on November 16 while using a camera hidden in his spectacles to film the eventual corrupt practices in the duty free shop on the Bulgarian side of the Dunav Most border checkpoint in Rousse, was charged under the same article 339a.

Both Rowlatt and Buhnici may spend up to three years in prison if found guilty.

The first hearing of the trial of Buhnici will be held in the Rousse court on December 3.

The two cases caused much controversy and debate on the proper use or abuse of the article in question.

Both international and local media organisations condemned the actions of the prosecution and urged for the immediate suspending of the cases and the release of Buhnici who spent 72 hours in the Rousse cells.

In two separate statements from November 18 and November 24, the organisation 'Reporters Without Borders' called Article 339a "an absurd and archaic law which stipulates a punishment of utterly disproportionate severity for the use of a hidden camera, which is nonetheless a common practice by investigative journalists."

In a letter to Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East Europe, expressed its concern with the arrest of Buhnici.

"SEEMO strongly condemns the arrest of the journalist and urges the Bulgarian authorities to immediately release Buhnici," the letter signed by the head of the organisation Oliver Vujovic read. "We would like to remind Your Excellencies that a safe working environment for journalists is a fundamental principle of any democratic society and we hope that the Bulgarian officials will do everything possible to secure his immediate release."

In a statement released to the media by the Bulgarian Media Coalition (BMC) the Managing Board expressed their alarm with the cases against Rowlatt and Buhnici. The media organisation urged the prosecution to suspend the actions against the two and pointed out that hidden recording devices are two of the main tools used by investigative journalists.

"Outside of the legal framework, these actions by the authorities limit the opportunities for investigative journalists who are barely protected in Bulgaria," the statement read.

MPs and other public officials were divided on the subject on whether or not Article 339a should be amended.

"There is nothing bad in the text," Deputy Prime Minister Plamen Panayotov, who is also a professor of law, said. "It depends on how it is interpreted."

The chair of the Supreme Administrative Court Konstantin Penchev also said that the article should not be amended.

The National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) MP Borislav Ralchev said that the argument that hidden devices can be used when the public interest is at stake was invalid as it was very difficult to prove the nature of public interest.

The right-wing MP and former interior minister Yordan Sokolov, however, said that in its current form Article 339a is absurd by saying that anyone who is filming something with a hidden camera is a criminal and should be prosecuted.

In a series of interviews with Bulgarian-language media Mihail Ekimdjiev, a lawyer specialising in court actions of private citizens against the state said that the article in question was absurd. "This means that anyone with a mobile phone with a sound recording option or a camera can be prosecuted," he said. "People who have inadvertently filmed a crime fall into the same category."