Bulgarian Big Brother award for Interior Ministry

22:56 Mon 28 Jan 2008 - Rene Beekman

Photo: Velko Angelov

On January 28, European data protection day, the Bulgarian Big Brother awards have been awarded.

The 2008 Big Brother award went to the Interior Ministry for publishing the names and personal information from the passports of two BBC journalists who were shooting a documentary film in Bulgaria. Along with the personal data of the two, the ministry also published their police records.

The Shame award for violation of the person data act was awarded to Council of Ministers of Bulgaria, for publishing the names, social security numbers and registration addresses of landowners whose land had been disowned for the widening of the ring-road around Sofia.

Nominated for the 2008 Big Brother awards in Bulgaria were Council of Ministers, the Interior Ministry, road police (KAT), the Registration Agency and the committee for the protection of personal data.

The Big Brother award, named after the character from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is an initiative of Privacy International and was awarded in Bulgaria for the fourth time.
The awards are presented annually to state institutions, companies or individuals who have violated the sanctity of the individual and the protection of personal data.

Bulgarian organisers are the Access to Information Programme (AIP) and the Internet Society Bulgaria. The award ceremony took place at the Red House, centre for culture and debate, in Sofia.

This year's jury for the award consisted of Alexander Kashumov, head of the judicial team of AIP, Gergana Zjouleva, managing director of AIP, Georgi Lozanov, teacher at the Faculty of Journalist of the Sofia University, Zoya Dimitrova, journalist, Krasimir Dimitrov, member of the committee for the protection of personal data, Fani Davidova, lawyer at AIP and Yulia Velkova, project manager at Internet Society Bulgaria.

Comments

Comments by maha - 14:35 02 Feb 2008
	You do realise that "journalists" from the BBC, whether knowingly or unknowingly, work for the British government and serve the interests of big corporations intent on destroying your country and impoverishing/enslaving your people, don't you? The BBC perpetuate lies and myths to serve elite interests. Orwell himself worked for the BBC. That's why he knew what was going on and what was in store for all of us.