Minister Maslarova's statements about the BBC would be considered unacceptable anywhere in Europe

London, Sofia, 26 September 2007 - On 13 September 2007, BBC 4 television viewers in the United Kingdom had an opportunity to watch “Bulgaria’s abandoned children”, a documentary film directed by Kate Blewett. The official reaction of the Bulgarian authorities was overtly negative and expressed on a number of occasions by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Emilia Maslarova. According to her, such films are slanderous to Bulgaria.

The September issue of Obektiv will feature the reaction of British viewers to the film. We will also publish an article by the human rights activists Ivan Fiser, who visited the institution a number of times. Mr. Fiser believes that nothing has changed in the institution for the last five years, when he last visited the institution, and that the statements of Minister Maslarova about the BBC are totally unacceptable for a state official anywhere in Europe. Below are excerpts of Mr. Fiser’s article. The full text will be available in the September issue of Obektiv.

“Lastly a few words about the official reaction to the BBC film. The statements posted on the BBC website and some statements noted by the Bulgarian media seemed to me predictable and transparently devoid of any sense of responsibility. The interview given on 19 September by Mrs. Emilia Maslarova to Inforadio reveals profound lack of understanding of social, psychological and medical needs of children with developmental disabilities (“high time to understand that for some people, be they adults or children with mental disabilities, cannot learn to speak, or to read. They simply have no abilities…”). Some of her remarks, for example “you can understand that the family does not want such a person in their home”, must have been distressing to people with disabilities and their families. This should be clearly unacceptable for an official in her position in any modern democratic state. Remarks such as “I would be very happy, if you, Bulgarian journalists, would visit similar institutions abroad and to dig out what had been uncovered by the BBC. It was absolutely incorrect of the BBC to do this and I would add that it was done with bad intentions to misrepresent Bulgaria” were tragically risible and reminiscent of the way government and party officials, replaced 18 years ago, reacted to ‘foreign attempts to defame Bulgaria’. After Bulgaria’s abandoned children has been shown on Bulgarian television, I challenge Madam Minister to repeat these observations in front of the same television audience.

I also challenge Bulgarian authorities to prove me wrong that in five year’s time, in 2012, no child in Bulgaria will be abandoned to the fate of children of Mogilino. A challenge I would dearly love to lose. Meanwhile I pray for all those nameless children similarly abandoned in institutions like Mogilino who will not live to see that day.”

Ivan Fiser is senior associate at the international human rights organisation the Equal Rights Trust.