BULGARIA: Protesters gather after bomb explodes at home of Bulgarian crime reporter

Record ID: 357882

  • Title: BULGARIA: Protesters gather after bomb explodes at home of Bulgarian crime reporter
  • Date: 12th April 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF PROTEST RALLY IN SQUARE
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bulgaria
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5Q7TS5F56RPI7BZY7GM5UCUMO
  • Story Text: A powerful bomb exploded in front of the apartment of a Bulgarian television reporter early on Thursday (April 6), smashing windows and walls in a seven-storey building but causing no casualties, police said.
    The attack came as Bulgaria tries to prove it can crack down on rampant high-level corruption and organised crime to the European Union, which will decide on May 16 whether to let the Balkan state join in 2007 or delay it by a year.
    Journalist Vasil Ivanov said he believed the bomb was intended to kill him following a string of investigative stories in which he uncovered a number of acts of fraud, inmate abuse at prisons, and other crimes.
    "It is obvious that if journalists are being bombed, poured with acid and beaten, (it's because) they do a better job against crime than officials do. Is there a blasted politician or a member of parliament or somebody from the judicial system? No," Ivanov said.
    He also said he would not stop doing his stories, the latest of which uncovered prisoner abuse at Sofia Central prison.
    Ivanov's station and deputies from the ruling Socialist-led coalition condemned the attack.
    Bulgarian Parliament condemned the attack in a special declaration.
    "It is disturbing that this happened when the country's security is at the centre of our EU partners' attention. Not only the home of a journalist was bombed, but freedom of speech was threatened," the deputies said in a statement.
    Meanwhile, a protest entitled "Citizens against mafia" took place in Sofia on Friday (April 7) in direct response to the attack.
    "There are only two choices - we, the citizens will prevail, or the mafia. There is no middle choice. Because where the organised crime settles conveniently in government structures, there is no democratic society," said a journalist and the speaker of the rally.
    Despite the heavy rain. more than 200 Bulgarian journalists gathered under the windows of a governmental building to protest against such encroachment on the freedom of speech.
    "This is the next in a series of attempts on journalist's life, which is practically against all of us, is the last drop in the glass full of lawlessness and lack of any protection for lives and dignity of the people in this country," said Kalin Manolov, another Bulgarian journalist.
    Bulgaria has promised Brussels it will jail top-level officials who have made corrupt deals and convict powerful organised crime bosses who diplomats say control large parts of the economy.
    Underworld gangs have killed scores of people in a string of bloody shootings, bombings and other assassinations since 2001, but authorities have yet to convict a single suspect for any of the murders.
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