A Month Later
It’s been a month and a few days since the protest against the regulation of the Ministry of Foreign and the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communication, also known as The Regulation for Internet-bugging. I collected many impressions and many reactions. The protest, even though not numerous, released a lot of reactions from the press, televisions, radios and more than 4000 websites.
We participated in talk-shows, morning shows; we met members of the Parliament, attorneys, the Ombudsman and many experts.
The problem is serious and it goes beyond the violations imposed by Regulation No 40.
The question is to what extent the citizens’ rights should be limited in the name of security and what do we have to sacrifice in order to be sure that we are living safely?
This question has many aspects, of course, and when the society is frightened it is ready to pay whatever it costs just to prevent a tragedy or not to repeat it.
An example? After the train-tragedy, Bulgarian State Railways rushed a bill for listing the passengers’ names and gave rights to the station staff to rifle the luggage and thus to forbid carrying alcohol. In the common tragic and panicked thinking the bill was accepted without complaints from the society, but we all know that this measure is more than useless.
One-way presentation of news is another big problem, which is not recognised by the society and that’s why it is very easily manipulated.
An example? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says: “We caught this paedophile and that drug-boss by using Skype, it’s so good that we are collecting data”. And the herd follows the leader.
Levels
Another big and typical Bulgarian issue is that everyone wants to dig his own hole. Before the protest nobody had heard of the regulation and nobody recognised the problems it carried. After there was some noise around it, many “organisations” started “working” on it in their own direction and understanding or not the issue they keep “digging” and instead of uniting in the name of civil rights or in the name of abrogation of the regulation, they are trying to become great as being the first ones trying to do something and thus preventing others from overtaking, but they lack the thought of doing the job.
Unification of interests is impossible in Bulgaria. Is it because of our culture or because of the confidence or the power of division it is just not working here and that’s why “Divide et impera!” is straight in the target, because we fight the big problem with small weapons instead of uniting and getting the big weapon on our side.
The Regulation No 40 problem is not only legal one, it is social and psychological; it goes to another dimension of confidence. Fighting it only with legal terms and arguments is a loss and it will only make it stronger and bigger in the future.
These are the things that impressed me.
If you are constructive persons, who are willing to help and work in the area of digital freedoms, you can join e-Frontier Bulgaria.
We need people from every single part and town in the country. Join us so we can defend our rights together. We need help.
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