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The end of the Parliamentary Session in Bulgaria was marked by the second voting and the adoption of The Law on Telecommunications. The adoption of the Law was preceded by the ruling of the Constitutional Court that had addressed the most disputed problem raised during the discussions of the Law, namely whether the Bulgarian Constitution requires a concession regime for telecommunications operators as it had been foreseen in the draft law text? The Constitutional Court answered this question in the negative and confirmed the legislator's right to evaluate and choose between concession and licence...

A group of Parliamentarians had asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of several provisions of the Penal Code concerning penal responsibility for "offence and aspersion" punishable by fines or jail. The penalty is higher if the violator either acted "in his official capacity" or offended a person "in his/her official capacity". Some groups (especially journalists) fear that the provisions seriously endanger the freedom of speech in Bulgaria since they believe that the provisions aim to limit the journalists' attacks against politicians and members of the Government. Nevertheless,...

A huge social and parliamentary discussion is taking place in Bulgaria regarding the recent publication of drafts for a new media law and a new telecommunications law. The latter has already passed the first reading in Parliament. The texts of the drafts cover the television and radio broadcasting as well as the telecommunications on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. The laws provide the main principles and proclaim the main participants concerned with the radio and television functioning and the telecommunication systems and services. They declare National Radio, National Television,...

While the establishment of broadcasting regulations in Bulgaria looked extremely unlikely at the end of 1996 as a result of the Constitutional Court's judgment No 21 of 14 November 1996, which found that major, central aspects of the Radio and Television Act infringed the Constitution (see IRIS 1997-1: 10), there have been new developments which will at the very least delay the fundamental legal provision coming into force. A group of Members of Parliament has applied to the Constitutional Court again for investigation of the constitutionality of a large number of provisions contained in last November's...

The Bulgarian parliament ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television on 4 December 1997. The corresponding law was published in the official gazette, Darzaven vestnik (No. 117/97) on 10 December. Under the Bulgarian Constitution, international instruments, when ratified by Parliament, take precedence over domestic law. This means that the Bulgarian Broadcasting Act must now be reviewed to ensure its compatiblity with the Convention. (Editor's note: The Bulgarian instrument of ratification had not yet been deposited with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe).