Opening the files of the former communist security services has been a long and painful process for most of the East European States. In Bulgaria, The Dossier Act (officially The Law for Access and Disclosure of the Documents of Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army) was adopted in December 2006. It established the Dossier Committee which is responsible for opening formerly closed Intelligence files to the public. Before the Dossier Act, researchers faced ineffective access to archives and an unwillingness by institutions to open these files. Often, the courts were their only remedy.
The right to turn to the courts for access was established six years earlier, in the Access to Public Information Act (APIA). At the Act’s inception, journalists were skeptical toward the law’s effectiveness. Nevertheless, they soon realized APIA greatly helped their journalistic endeavors. APIA was used to investigate government misconduct, to unveil corruption, and to trigger public debate on questionable topics. Some journalists used APIA for accessing the historic files Communist Bulgaria’s former security services. In the face of Bulgaria’s void of legislation and the insufficiency of its institutions, journalists used APIA and the courts to conduct some of the most informative and important investigations into the mysteries of the Cold War. (more…)
