2004 freedominfo.org Global Survey Results - Bulgaria
Text from the freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World, by David Banisar (updated 12 May 2004)

Article 41 of the Bulgarian Constitution of 1991 states:

(1) Everyone shall be entitled to seek, receive and impart information. This right shall not be exercised to the detriment of the rights and reputation of others, or to the detriment of national security, public order, public health and morality.

(2) Citizens shall be entitled to obtain information from state bodies and agencies on any matter of legitimate interest to them which is not a state or other secret prescribed by law and does not affect the rights of others. (1)

In 1996, the Constitutional Court ruled that while the Constitution gives a right to information to any person, this right needed to be determined by legislation. (2) There were a number of lower court cases that rejected requests by citizens and NGOs to obtain information. (3)

The Access to Public Information Act was enacted in June 2000. (4) The law allows for any person or legal entity to demand access to information in any form held by state institutions and other entities funded by the state budget and exercising public functions. Requests can be verbal or written and must be processed within 14 days.

Information can be withheld if it is personal information about an individual, a state or official secret, business secret, or pre-decisional material. Restrictions must be provided for in an Act of Parliament. Information relating to preparatory work or opinions or statements of ongoing negotiations can be withheld for 2 years. Partial access is required but has not been widely adopted.

Unusually, there is no internal appeals mechanism. Denials can be appealed to the regional court or the Supreme Administrative Court. Minor fines can be levied against government officials who do not follow the requirements of the Act.

Government bodies have a duty to publish information about their structures, functions and acts; a list of acts issued, a list of data volumes and resources, and contact information for access requests. The Minister of State Administration must publish an annual summary of the reports. Bodies are also required to publish information to prevent a threat to life, health or property.

There were 32,857 requests under the Act in 2002. (5) A large number of the requests are verbal (12,403) which the poor information management systems of the departments cannot handle well and most are unanswered or are tacit denials. Many problems have been identified with the law. These include:

• The very definition of "public information" is not clear, mixing "public" and "social" aspects;
• There is no independent body to oversee the procedures of the law. This could lead to unnecessary delays and those who have been denied access have no resort but to go to court, which is a costly procedure;
• There is no description of what state bodies should do to ensure the effective implementation of the law, for instance, through training public servants, providing reading rooms, etc.;
• Despite the law and subsequent measures such as the Electronic Registry of Executive Institutions and Acts and the Law for Personal Data Protection, information disclosure practices are still marked by centralized decision making, administrative discretion, poorly organized information retrieval systems, etc.; and
• The bureaucracy in general is not prepared to implement the law. (6)

In May 2003, the Parliament approved at first hearing amendments to the APIA. (7) The amendments would give a more precise definition of "public information"; expand the range of institutions; creates a "balance of interests" test; create an administrative procedure for appeals; allows for fines when officials refuse to issue a decision or follow a court order; and exempts the media from being required to provide information.

The Parliament approved the Law for the Protection of Classified Information in April 2002 as part of Bulgaria's efforts to join NATO. (8) It created a Commission on Classified Information appointed by the Prime Minister and four levels of security for classified information. The law provides a very broad scope of classification authority, allowing everyone who is empowered to sign a document to classify it. There are requirements to show harm for some provisions but no overriding public interest tests. The law revoked the 1997 Access to Documents of the Former State Security Service Act and Former Intelligence Service of the General Staff Act which regulated access to, and provided procedures for, the disclosure and use of documents stored in the former State Security Service, including files on government officials. It also eliminated the Commission on State Security Records set up under the 1997 Act. A regulation now establishes access and the right of individuals to access their files created by the former security police is currently unclear. A group of MPs asked the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the provisions that abolished the law on access to former state security files and created a register of classified documents. The Constitutional Court upheld the provisions in 2002. (9)

Under the Administration Act, the Council of Ministers must publish a register of administrative structures and their acts which is defined as "all normative, individual and common administrative acts." The register must be on the Internet. In 2002, the regulation was amended to limit the Acts published to only those relating to exercising government control. (10)

Bulgaria signed the Aarhus Treaty in 1998 but has not yet ratified it. A new Environmental Protection Act was approved in 2002. The new act provides for less automatic disclosure and more exemptions than the previous law from 1991. (11)

The Personal Data Protection Act, which came into force in January 2002, gives individuals the right to access and correct information held about them by public and private bodies. (12) However, it might also prevent the information relating to public officials acting in their official capacity from being released. A Data Protection Commission was created in 2002 to oversee the act.

In 2002 a bill on the National Archives was introduced. The bill contains no appeals mechanism if access to records is denied.

Notes

1. Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria of 13 July 1991, http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/bu00000_.html

2. Judgment No. 7, Case No. 1 of 1996.

3. See Gergana Jouleva, Bulgaria- The Access to Information Programme: Fighting for Transparency During the Democratic Transition, July 2002. Available at http://www.freedominfo.org/case/bulgaria1.htm

4. Access to Public Information Act, http://www.aip-bg.org/library/laws/apia.htm. Amended by Personal Data Protection Act and Protection of Classified Information Act. See the Access to Information Programme home page for detailed studies and reports on freedom of information in Bulgaria. http://www.aip-bg.org/index_eng.htm

5. AIP, Report on Access to Public Information in Bulgaria 2002. Available at http://www.aip-bg.org/

6. Ibid.

7. See http://www.aip-bg.org/projlaw.htm

8. Law for the Protection of Classified Information, Prom. SG. 45/30 Apr 2002, corr. SG. 5/17 Jan 2003 . For a review, see Alexander Kashumov, National Security and the Right to Information, 2003. Available at http://www.freedominfo.org

9. Decision No. 11 of 2002.

10. See AIP, Report on Access to Public Information in Bulgaria 2002.

11. See Access to Information Programme, The Current Situation of the Access to Public Information in Bulgaria 2002.

12. Personal Data Protection Act. http://www.aip-bg.org/pdf/pdpa.pdf