Internet Democracy

This summary is part of a research project carried out between March and October 2006 in support of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), one of The Communication Initiative (The CI)'s partners.

According to this study, steps by the Bulgarian Government’s Committee for Post and Telecommunications to introduce licensing of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) sparked a strong reaction from the information technology (IT) sector. Safeguards introduced to the new Telecom law had at first appeared to be government concern for high quality services, but the sector soon feared that unreasonable government access to users names, passwords, and documents would very likely lead to internet censorship. Another major concern was that the government aimed to take a large proportion of any profits made by the licensed internet providers, which could possibly hinder further business development of the sector.

The Internet Society of Bulgaria (ISOC-Bulgaria), concerned that good practice should prevail on any new internet service in their country, entered into what would become a two-year campaign for internet democracy in Bulgaria. This campaign included many media promotions, high profile interviews with visiting politicians and actual and threatened legal injunctions. Throughout the campaign, the message conveyed was that the “licensing of Internet Service Providers [could] not be justified on economic or political grounds.”

Although initially fearful of taking on the government, ISOC found the situation in Bulgaria very favourable to their efforts. A large proportion of the sector, along with the business community, found the idea of the government restrictions on using the internet shocking and gave ISOC sufficient confidence to challenge the government. The country was also under the supervision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and members of the European Parliament visited Bulgaria to monitor progress in preparing for joining the European Union. With growing public support at home and international concern abroad, ISOC and several of the county’s foremost lawyers managed to influence both parliament and the legal system to reconsider their approach and legality of the proposed policy and legislation.

The authors of this report explain that, despite political and legal gains, ISOC’s negotiations with the government through the Committee for Post and Telecommunications (CPT) still centred around the government’s apparent hidden agenda to gain political control of information and to further its own economic interests. It was believed that the proposed licensing of ISPs would effectively put an end to freedom of speech on the internet in Bulgaria, as ISPs would be afraid to object to unauthorised listening, for fear of losing their license.

With the debate between the sector and the government reaching few points of agreement, the Bulgarian Cabinet ordered the chairman of the CPT to meet representatives of ISOC to reach an agreement. After a three-day meeting, a joint statement was drafted of the areas of agreement that seemed to satisfy both sides, but the CPT sent back a completely different document still promoting licensing as a good thing for Bulgaria. ISOC refused to sign the document, saying the CPT had not followed the recommendations of the Bulgarian Prime Minister. Within days, the chairman of the CPT decided to change the offending clauses related to licensing. This was enough for ISOC to drop their court case and accept the government’s new positions.

The case resulted in more than just the fall of the proposed licensing system. Members of the Bulgarian Parliament approached ISOC to help draft the “new Computer crimes chapter of the criminal code.” Representatives of ISOC were also invited to join the Y2K committee.

ISOC Bulgaria received strong support from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the Global Internet Literacy Campaign (GILC), and other international organisations.

ISOC became well known in the country and has been approached by other groups and individuals having problems with the government.

ISOC succeeded in gaining local, national and international support to sufficiently influence the government to drop the licensing of Internet Service Providers.

ISOC accepted ‘out of court’ the most important gains that they had made rather than go to court and possibly lose. This still allows ISOC to go to court again should they need to in the future.

Representatives of ISOC were invited to join the National Council for Development of IT.