SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 29 (SeeNews) – On Sunday, a Bulgarian court acquitted media owner and businessman Ivo Prokopiev on charges of “voicing opinions” in a case related to the privatisation of a state-owned power distribution company in 2011.
The accusation against Prokopiev is related only to public statements that he made in his capacity as head of an employers’ association, during sessions as a member of a consultative public body - the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) in 2010 in 2011 in which he gave advice and clarification on how the process of privatisation could be carried out - through tender offerings on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, with all proceeds going towards a consolidated limited liability company that is to be solely owned by the government.
Along with Prokopiev, former finance minister Simeon Djankov and former energy minister Traicho Traikov also faced charges for their alleged role in the sale of shares in the electricity distribution company described as “underpriced” by the prosecutors.
“Part of the indictment refers to actions that do not constitute a crime, and another part refers to crimes that were not committed,” the judge said on Sunday, adding that the Tripartite Council was set up specifically as a forum for voicing opinions. “Lawful actions have been declared unlawful by the prosecution,” the judge stated with regards to Prokopiev’s role in the deal.
In its motives, the court analysed the EVN shares sale in detail and concluded that the deal has been executed by a decision of the Council of Ministers, followed by decisions by the privatisation agency. The prospectus for the public offering was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of the defendants acted according to the law and the deal inflicted no financial damage upon the state, it said.
In response to the first instance acquittal, the prosecution said they would appeal before a higher instance court.
The case has garnered widespread international attention about judicial arbitrariness and growing institutional pressure on independent media in Bulgaria, a country that has been repeatedly slammed by international observers and institutions for its politically driven prosecution and deteriorating media freedom.
“I am concerned about the legal proceedings in a court case against Bulgarian publisher Ivo Prokopiev, owner of the most significant sources of independent and high-quality journalism in Bulgaria,” Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said on Friday. “Even though the trial is not directly related to Prokopiev’s Economedia group, the seriousness of the charges against him is above all politically motivated and clearly related to his media's critical stance towards the government,” Deloire added.
“Closely following the criminal procedures against media owner Ivo Prokopiev, of Economedia group, publisher of Capital and Dnevnik known as sources of independent and quality journalism in Bulgaria,” Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said in a Twitter post on Friday. “Pluralism and freedom of the media must be preserved and respected.”
“The consequences of the verdict could damage the media freedom in Bulgaria considering the fact that his media outlets are sources of serious investigative reporting and examples of quality journalism,” noted the Konrad – Adenauer Stiftung, KAS Media Programme South East Europe.
A day earlier, the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) too said it is urgently concerned about the questionable conduct of legal proceedings in the court case that could lead to a criminal conviction and to Prokopiev being sentenced to a prison term on unsound and tenuous grounds.
The AEJ commented that the consequences of a potential guilty verdict in this case could be severely damaging for media freedom in Bulgaria.
“Despite the fact that this trial is not directly related to Mr Prokopiev’s Economedia group, which includes Capital Weekly and Dnevnik.bg, there are serious concerns that a major reason for bringing charges against Mr Prokopiev is the investigative work and critical stance of those media towards the government,” AEJ said.
The biggest global media association WAN-IFRA, representing more than 18,000 media outlets, has also issued a statement, saying, “WAN-IFRA expresses its concerns over suspicions of political interference in the prosecution of Ivo Prokopiev, owner of the Economedia Group in Bulgaria. The haste of the judicial authorities in a court case against Bulgarian media owner and businessman Ivo Prokopiev gives rise to fears of a new instance of political intimidation of the independent Bulgarian press. It sheds light, once again, on the steady erosion of independence and pluralism of Bulgaria's media over the past fifteen years, and a disturbing lack of scrutiny on media issues from EU's authorities.”
“Bulgarian authorities should immediately drop the charges against publisher Ivo Prokopiev, which are retaliatory in nature and intended to stifle critical reporting,” the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.
Prokopiev too has stressed that the charges are being used as a tool to exert pressure on him because of the independent editorial policy of Economedia.
“I believe that the case being brought against me is not just a case of an accusation which is unfounded, but rather it is a false and purposefully concocted charge, being used as an instrument of repression against me,” Prokopiev told the court. “The prosecution is not seeking justice, but rather, it is using its jurisdiction for the purpose of tormenting and discrediting public figures such as myself, which actively criticize the ruling political elite.”
In the period of 2009-2010, Capital, along with other independent media outlets published a series of articles on the dangerous concentration of assets of practically all major state-owned companies in the now bankrupt Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank). These resources were
later used for the acquisition of various media outlets, for the purpose of gaining political influence. As years passed, Corpbank started to resemble a Ponzi scheme. Its activities violated basic banking rules and regulations, yet they failed to provoke any reaction from the state authorities. Corpbank went bankrupt in 2014.
The so-called EVN case has triggered a series of legal pressure and follow up actions against Prokopiev.
In late 2017, Bulgaria’s Commission for Illegal Assets Forfeiture (CIAF) froze assets held by Prokopiev in connection with a probe into the privatization of mineral extracting and processing company Kaolin in 2000. The assets were frozen despite a final court decision confirming the lack of criminal activities committed during the privatization of Kaolin and despite expired limitation.
More recently, in March 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown and the state of emergency in Bulgaria, CIAF filed a statement of claim against Prokopiev and his wife Galya Prokopieva with the Sofia District Court to forfeit unlawfully acquired property, even though enforcement proceedings are suspended and the freezing of assets is forbidden during a state of emergency.
Prokopiev is not the only Bulgarian publisher under pressure. The publishers of Sega daily, investigative news site Bivol and Club Z news website, also critical of the government, too have been attacked and pressurized by the government and prosecutor’s office.
This increasing pressure on Bulgarian media comes amid a decline in the country’s media freedom score among EU member states and the countries in Southeast Europe, according to RSF. Bulgaria has fallen to the 111th position in 2020 from 51st place in 2007 in RSF’s Press Freedom Index.
“Corruption and collusion between media, politicians and oligarchs is widespread in Bulgaria, which is most notably embodied by Delyan Peevski, who ostensibly owns two newspapers, but also controls a TV channel, news websites and a large portion of print media distribution,” RSF said in its latest report in April.