The We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria MP Bozhidar Bojanov announced on the social network Facebook that he had received very disturbing answers about the downloading of the website „New Beginning“ by the Ministry of Interior. See what they are:
“The Interior Ministry answered my two questions related to the take down of the website „Novo home“. And the answers are quite disturbing. They show that the Interior Ministry can supposedly take down any website on the basis of signals, because of suspicions of wrongdoing. The site did not explicitly say that it was satirical and therefore could not be political satire. The content was defamatory and offensive.
This explanation opens Pandora’s box. If tomorrow a party activist of one party files a report against the website of another party that criticises his party, will the Interior Ministry apply the same provision? If a politician files a report against a news website for insulting him with its criticism, will the Interior Ministry apply the same order? It shouldn’t.
The general provisions in the MHA Act are not a valid basis for such action. Unfortunately, any abuse by institutions brings in its wake legislative changes to curb such abuses.
The application of injunction powers to websites should clearly be subject to external scrutiny. And we will discuss such legislative changes for the next Parliament.”
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[…] Bojanov has received disturbing answers from the Interior Ministry about the downloading of websites […]