For immediate release

On January 14th , 2010 there will be a massive protest around the Parliament building in Sofia under the slogan “Bulgaria is not Big Brother, 2010 is not 1984”.

The protest will unite citizens, political parties and many organizations around their demand against the latest change in the data retention legislation.

The draft Law, which was passed on December 22nd , 2009, contains provisions, allowing the Ministry of Interior and many other agencies to execute continuous and uncontrolled monitoring of the behaviour, movement and other information on any Bulgarian citizen, regardless if he is or is not guilty of any crime. This preconditions the reversing of the “innocent until proven guilty” concept, which is a founding concept of the Bulgarian Constitution as well as of a number of European documents for human rights protection.