Bulgarian journalists fight corruption |
For more than two years now journalists of prestigious media in Bulgaria have been "sounding the bell" together and working actively for the formation of public intolerance towards corruption practices. They are united in a Club of Journalists Against Corruption.
The idea originated at a roundtable held on April 6, 2004, organized by the Commission Coordinating the Fight Against Corruption within the Council of Ministers. At that time communication between the media and the institutions and access to information were quite limited and the forum discussed possible cooperation and interaction mechanisms. As a result of the discussion 25 journalists of 18 leading media set up a Club of Journalists Against Corruption Association.
Now the anti-corruption club has 190 members and eight regional structures - in Vidin, Kurdjali, Vratsa, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, Montana and Bourgas. Its members include not only journalists but also lawyers and representatives of the institutions involved in fighting corruption. Their meetings and the exchange of information are frequent, regular and efficient.
The immediate goal of the Club is to pool the efforts of the state institutions and journalists in fighting corruption. Its main task is to provoke public intolerance of different forms towards corruption and to raise public awareness. These are identified as important factors in changing the corruption climate in the country.
In less than two years the Association became one of the leading NGOs in fighting corruption. The Association introduced a new style in fighting corruption founded on cooperation and joint activities with the institutions rather than waging a battle against them. Its members are convinced that the joint efforts of the media, the government sector and civil society are bound to yield positive results.
In the course of a year the Association signed cooperation agreements with the Commission Coordinating the Fight Against Corruption with the Council of Ministers, with the Ministry of the Interior, with the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria, with the Notary Chamber, with the Union of Judges in Bulgaria, with the National Insurance Institute and other organizations.
The Journalists against Corruption Club is member of the public council with the parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee and its lawyers are taking part in working groups drafting specific laws. They insist on the adoption of an anti-corruption act and are writing a bill following the example of the German state of Bavaria. They have offered a Code of Ethics for the owners of print and electronic media guided by their belief in the need of transparency in the financing of the media.
The Club has conducted a number of information and investigative campaigns. It held the first of its kind media monitoring of the work of the MPs of the 39th National Assembly. The survey sought to inform the public before the election in June 2005 so that only MPs working in the public and not in their personal or corporative interests would be elected to the new Parliament. Rankings of "the most hard working" and "the laziest" MPs were published at the end of May 2005 after a detailed analysis of the work of the MPs.
The Journalists against Corruption Club also carried out media monitoring of the work of the regional administrations of Vidin and Montana (Northwestern Bulgaria).
Conducting a public opinion poll, the Club identified the spheres of the highest incidence of corruption practices and set up working groups in the two administrations for follow-up control. The journalists launched a "No to Corruption!" initiative filming a video spot and investigative documentaries. The "We and the Court" information campaign informed the public of their rights and the ways they can defend them in court.
In partnership with the Ministry of the Interior, the Association is also working on corruption tip-offs. Since the beginning of the campaign it has received more than 100 complaints of corruption on its Internet site, mainly regarding the judiciary, the local government and the health care system.
The Club of Journalists Against Corruption launched a Clean Faces campaign on involvement of its members with services of the former State Security. The initiative was supported by a similar Romanian Organization - Civil Media. The two organizations are planning to undertake joint actions guided by their belief that there should be clarity regarding who is who in the media and in public life and who the people forming public opinion actually are.
The Club organized an international roundtable on "European Standards in Media-Institutions Communications" with the participation of Renate Schroeder, Director of the European Federation of Journalists in Brussels.
Ten members of the Club were trained as lecturers in anti-corruption and five specialized at the HAUS Consortium in Finland.
The Chairperson of the Association, Reneta Nikolova, met with representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission who approached the Club for its opinion on the anti-corruption processes in the country. According to members of the Association, Bulgaria is marking real progress in this sphere. They believe that with their efforts they contribute to Bulgaria’s full membership of the EU without the activation of safeguard clauses and stress the need to observe the rules at all levels pledging to exercise still stricter public control.
Biliana Georgieva
For more information:
