User:BlueForest/Bivol.bg

Bivol.bg, also known as Bivol, is an investigative media based in Bulgaria which is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project network and is an official partner of Wikileaks. Its team comprises Atanas Tchobanov, Dimitar Stoyanov and Assen Yordanov.

The European Commission has referred to one of Bivol's investigations known as Yaneva Gate in their 2016 report on Bulgaria under the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. This mechanism measures the country's progress in the area of corruption and judicial independence. In 2010, Assen Yordanov from Bivol.bg received a Leipzing Media Award, which is meant to "honor journalists, publishers, authors and institutions from all over the world who dedicate themselves to ensuring and developing the freedom of the press by demonstrating willingness to take risks, strong personal commitment, persistence, courage and democratic conviction." Yordanov was also nominated for an award by Reporters Without Borders in 2013. In 2019, Bivol's journalist Dimitar Stoyanov received the Axel Springer Award for investigative journalism together with a colleague from the RISE Project Romania.

Notable Investigations

Yaneva Gate

In 2015, Bivol started publishing leaked recordings of conversations between two judges from the Sofia City Court and the lawyer Momchil Mondeshki: the wiretaps were dubbed Yaneva Gate. The conversations allegedly show influence peddling, illegitimate pressure on the judiciary by Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, media mogul and politician Delyan Peevski and General Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, corruption, and moral degradation of the courts, including sex against career promotion. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, "the wiretaps have once again raised questions about the judiciary’s practices, lack of separation of powers, and questionable adherence to rule of law." Yaneva Gate reached the European Commission which asked Bulgarian authorities to carry out an investigation. The President of Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov also publicly called for an independent investigation because Yaneva Gate "put a stain on the courts". However, Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office and the Ethics Committee of the Supreme Judicial Council refused to investigate because they deemed the recordings were manipulated. By contrast, an independent examination by a foreign laboratory which Bivol contacted showed the recordings were authentic. One of the judges in the conversation confirmed the recordings were authentic too. Hristo Ivanov, Minister of Justice at the time, has referred to these recordings as а "mega corruption scandal." In principle, an investigation is difficult because of the vertical structure of Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office, which means that the General Prosecutor has to investigate himself.

GP Gate

In 2018, Bivol.bg published their investigation known as GP Gate, which is a joint project with RISE Project Romania. Arguably, it "exposed a complex network of consultants, businessmen and public officials that evidence indicates feasted without public oversight on projects funded by the European Union." While working on their investigation in September 2018, journalist from Bivol Dimitar Stoyanov and Attila Biro from RISE Project Romania were detained by Bulgarian authorities. Initially the head of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime denied that an arrest took place. Subsequently, the Court of Pernik established not only there was an arrest, but also that the detainment was illegal. In response to the arrest, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it was concerned by the "verbal and physical intimidation" of the journalists by Bulgarian authorities. The Council of Europe also issued an alert and monitored the case.

Panama Papers in Bulgaria

In 2018, Bivol.bg gained access to the Panama Papers under an agreement with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and subsequently published a story about the Bulgarian company Viafot which is attempting to acquire a key asset of Bulgaria's defense industry, namely the arms producer Dunarit. The Panama Papers show that Viafot is owned by Alexander Angelov who is the lawyer of media mogul Delyan Peevski. Previously, other Bulgarian media had reported how mysteriously all state institutions help Viafot acquire Dunarit through illegitimate means.