site.btaDemocrats for Strong Bulgaria: Invasion of Privacy Amendments, Proposed by TISP, Violate the Constitution and International Acts

Amendments to the Penal Code proposed by There Is Such a People (TISP) run counter to the Bulgarian Constitution and numerous international instruments, said MP Atanas Atanassov, leader of Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB), speaking in the halls of Parliament. DSB is part of the Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) parliamentary group.

On Thursday, the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs approved at first reading amendments, which criminalize the distribution of media containing information about a person's private life without their consent. The committee held an extraordinary session during a break in the plenary sitting.

“After chalga entered politics and Parliament, now it's entering criminal law,” said Atanassov, calling the proposed changes “a complete legal absurdity.”

He also noted that the bill introduces the possibility to use special surveillance means against journalists, vloggers, and others for disseminating information about people's private lives.

“We must do everything possible to defeat this in the plenary hall,” Atanassov said, describing the changes as an attempt to repress free people, free speech, and the right to distribute information.

CC-DB MP Yordan Ivanov also voiced strong opposition to the proposed amendments. “We will alert the European institutions, if necessary, to ensure this doesn’t move forward,” he said.

Under the proposed amendments anyone who, through print or other mass media, via electronic information systems, or by other means, disseminates a material or other medium containing information about another person’s private life without their consent shall be punished by imprisonment from one to six years and a fine from BGN 2,000 to 5,000.

Information about private life is defined as data concerning personal relationships, family relations, intimate relationships, or the health status of a natural person.