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PRESS AND INFORMATION SERVICE

Section: Religious Intolerance and Discrimination

July 2, 1998

BULGARIA

JOURNALIST AGAINST RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

HRWF (02.07.98) - A media drive for sensational stories is fast drying the already meagre reserve of religious tolerance in the port city of Burgas.

For reasons of personal malevolence towards Jehovah's Witnesses - a denomination which probably soon be lealised in this coucntry - a rage for persecuting adherents to this creed as elements dangerous to the public, or even as murderers, is being instigated and is spreading fast among the inhabitants of Burgas. This setting is described in detail by the reporter Mr. Katia Kasabova in the Novinar daily. She recounts the formation of a committee for combating the sects set up by the inhabitants of the city.

"For the first time in this country citizens, police, prosecution, the military and journalists joined forces in a drive against the aggressive pseudo-faithful, -Ms. Kasabova reports.- Even the Panzer Brigade stationed in Burgas joined the campaign". The proprietor of a security company stated that he would give 10 Kalashnikov rifles and as many Makarov guns for combating the sectarians. "Committee activists are collecting signature under a proclamation against Jehovah's Witnesses all over Burgas - goes on Ms. Kasabova in her article entitles "Burgas Challenges Jehovah's Witnesses to a Duel". - In two months the collected signature will be handed to Parliament in support of a request for the immediate passing of a bill against the destructive sects."

The growing tension in Burgas started last December when several newspapers reported that a local family was desperately seeking for its 14-year-old son Boyan. Rumours alleged that he had last been seen distributing religious printed materials. In the two months of uncanny calm that followed this report a real hurricane against the so called sectarians was brewing. On February 21 the press described beneath screaming headlines how local policemen ""Exposed a clandestine gathering of the unregistered sect Jehovah's Witnesses" (Duma daily) and seized "70 kilograms of religious printed matter" (24 Chasa). The most poignant point in these reports was that small children were present at the gathering. Three days later came the ominous report that Jehovah's Witnesses had threatened the life of Mr. Valentin Kasabov, a journalist from the local TV station "Rent". Death was hanging over the head of the adolescent Boyan, who, after three months of unexplained absence, suddenly reappeared at home and gave the addresses of the clandestine quarters of the sect to the police.

In the mixture journalists-police-sectarians the connoisseur of such concoctions will readily detect an attempt to exploit the latent tendency to intolerance for easy sensationalism. He will not be surprised by the fact that in the searches of the four apartments in Burgas the law-enforcement officers did not present an order by the Public Prosecutor, nor did they identify themselves. Or by the fact that a receipt for the seizure of belongings of the searched persons was made and signed in only one of the four apartments, and at that, only at the insistence of one of the victims. But it is unusual that a reporter from the private TV "Rent" was present at the searches, was filming them and was himself, instead of the policemen, doing the questioning of the people present. Asked for more information on the subject Mr. Kasabov replied: "We should be in the clear about the danger posed by Jehovah's Witnesses. This sect inculcates the notion that death is the supreme form of achieving one's own self. It prohibits its children from leading normal lives. It decrees that children should know only how to read and write... There is no provision in the Penal Ccode dealing with sects. The aim of the Acting Committee is the inclusion of such a text in the Penal Code in order to untie the hands of the police... I rule out the probability that the anonymous voices threatening me on the phone can belong to anyone else but Jehovah's Witnesses. My reporting is precise. We caught them on the spot, at a gathering. They were the only affected party, and the manner is typical for them..."

In his report Mr. Valentin Kasabov charged Jehovah's Witnesses of being fascist, cynical, fanatical, and of "blasphemously distorting the Bible". He implied that they adhere to Satan, encourage suicide and pose a threat to the public. His main proof is the case of 14-year old Boyan, who is scared by the faithful.

The Assistant-Chief of the Crime Department at the IV District Police Station in Burgas, Mr. Stoian Stoianov, points to the lack of evidence that Boyan had run away from his home because of his links to the sect. The boy had stolen a sizeable amount of money from his parents and went to the village of Sigma near Karnobat. He told a cattle-breeder there that he had no parents and asked the farmer to engage him as a labourer. Three months later he was discovered by police and returned to his parents.

These are the facts. The effect of the invented story about the dangerous sectarians will probably result in an increase of intolerance against those in town who happen to be non-conformist. The road back to tolerance is much more difficult.

THE LAWYER COMMENTS

It is commonly believed in this country that sectarians are not only criminals, but also very crafty and devious people who do not leave trace of the crimes they commit. This is more than enough to justify any action, whether on the edge of the law or downright unlawful, against sectarians. Such common-sense logic serves as an excuse to many journalists to publish unchecked or utterly false allegations about the supposedly great public evil - the sects.

This type of logic has served as justification for the disgraceful deeds of journalists from the private local TV channel "Rent". To storm into a private home with a camera, together with the police - this in itself violates the requirements for searches and confiscation prescribed by law; to take pictures of people without their consent; to force scared children in front of the camera and to interrogate them against their wish; to didactically manipulate people with biased comments while exposing them to supposedly "candid documentary pictures" - all this defiles not only the professional ethic, but also the law. But it is being justified in the name of the battle with the awful evil, stretching its predatory tentacles towards the innocent souls of children.

And what is the proof that these journalists who have shoved their professional ethic on the dust-heap, present to their viewers? Jehovah's Witnesses preach against blood transfusion, and preach it to children! The insignificant detail that those valiant journalists missed to report to the awed TV-viewers is that the awful Jehovah's Witnesses were preaching to their own children.

Under Bulgarian law any medical treatment, whether by medication or by operation, is conducted only with the consent of the sick person. Only in emergency cases when the consent of the victim cannot be obtained, can the doctor act on his own. Blood tranfusion is one of the many medical procedures, and nobody can force another person to have such a treatment. What Jehovah's Witnesses preach is the practising of a right to which every one is entitled - to decline a particular type of medical treatment. According to the report beamed by "Rent" TV, this is a crime!

The other "crime" committed by Jehovah's Witnesses and exposed in the same TV coverage is that they preach to children. Never mind that a fundamental right of all Bulgarian citizens is to bring up and educate their children in their own particular faith and customs. Never mind also that a number of international documents to which this country is a party guarantee the privacy of the family and the right of parents to educate their children. Some claim that these rights are only for "good" parents, not for "sectarians".

Article 164 of the Penal Code states that "whoever preaches hatred on religious grounds... shall be punished with deprivation of freedom for up to three years". And the next provision proclaims that "whoever by force or by threats impedes the citizens to freely practice their faith or to conduct their religious rituals and services that do not contravene the laws of this country, and do not disturb the public order and the good demeanour, is punishable by deprivation of freedom for up to one year".

In the surrounding general hysteria that is being poured upon us from all media it is unlikely that anyone will start considering whether the shown and said in the coverage on "Rent" TV is not liable to the punitive measures stipulated by the Penal Code.