Author: Ivana Jeremic

European Court Rules Against Bulgaria Over Secret Surveillance

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on Tuesday in favour of two lawyers who claimed that under the system of secret surveillance in Bulgaria, the communications of anyone in the country can be intercepted and accessed by the authorities.

The two lawyers, Mihail Ekimdzhiev and Aleksandar Kashamov, complained that the laws governing the interception and retention of surveillance data do not provide sufficient safeguards against arbitrary or abusive surveillance and accessing of the data.

Ekimdzhiev and Kashamov also argued that Bulgaria’s National Bureau for Control of Special Means of Surveillance operates with limited transparency, and that there is no effective remedy if there are abuses.

Neither claimed that they had been put under secret surveillance, but argued that the nature of their activities put them at risk of being put under surveillance and therefore of having their communications data accessed by the authorities.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled that Bulgaria had violated the right to respect for private life and correspondence under the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to secret surveillance and to the retention and accessing of communications data.

“The system of overseeing secret surveillance in Bulgaria as it was currently organised did not appear capable of providing effective guarantees against abusive surveillance,” it said in a statement.

The court also said that the independence of the National Bureau for Control of Special Means of Surveillance “could not be guaranteed, particularly as its members were given prior vetting by an agency whose requests they were meant to oversee”.

The court also noted that there are limited ways in which people subjected to surveillance can find out about the process or request information about it.

“Ultimately, the court held that the relevant legislation governing secret surveillance, especially as applied in practice, did not meet the quality-of-law requirement of the [European] Convention and was unable to keep surveillance to only that which was necessary,” it added

Bulgaria was ordered to pay 3,290.69 euros in costs and expenses.

Kashamov is a well-known legal expert at the NGO Access to Information, dealing with ​​human rights, administrative, civil, criminal and commercial issues.

In 2001, he represented the first-ever cases over discrimination in Bulgaria, and later was head of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics.

Last year, Kashamov sought to raise awareness of how local authorities are dealing with sensitive personal data during COVID-19 and criticised how the European Arrest Warrant, a cross-border judicial surrender procedure, is being implemented in violation of European law.

Ekimdzhiev is also a well-known lawyer. In 1998, he became the founder of the Association for European Integration and Human Rights NGO. Under the umbrella of the organisation, he has been conducting public interest cases and providing free legal aid, as well as training lawyers and journalists in the field of human rights.

Both Kashamov and Ekimdzhiev have criticised Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev and called for judicial reform in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria has seen several high-profile surveillance cases recently. They included President Rumen Radev being wiretapped by the prosecution in 2020 and the authorities allegedly eavesdropping on protesters and opposition leaders during a wave of protests the same year.

Albania Announces Four Arrests Over Massive Data Leaks

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

The Prosecutor of Tirana, Elisabeta Imeraj, told the media on Friday that police had arrested four people in connection with the massive data leaks that have rocked Albania.

Two people from state institutions suspected of selling people’s personal data and two others from private entities suspected of buying it had been arrested.

“They are employed in the National Information Service Agency, but practice their profession in the General Directorate of Taxes”, she said referring to the two arrested from state institutions.

The Tirana prosecution in December started checking a list allegedly containing the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens which has been circulated on social media.

It was alleged that the data contained the monthly salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors for January 2021.

Another data leak of salaries for the month of April was released and circulated through WhatsApp just one day later.

It was followed by another data leak that contained private information about citizens’ car plates.

Experts told BIRN that these leaks pose public security questions.

In April 2021, a few days before elections, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys. The case is still with the prosecution.

Kosovo Police Seize Crypto-Mining Equipment After Govt Ban

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

In two different operations in Mitrovica South and Podujeve municipalities, Kosovo Police seized 70 items of crypto-mining equipment as part of raids following the ban on crypto-mining announced by the government last week.

In the first operation, in Mitrovica South, 67 crypto-producing machines were confiscated, Police said they identified the location in an apartment where investigators found a suspect dealing with “illegal activity”

In the second case near Podujeve, police seized three pieces of crypto-mining equipment.

“We have informed Customs officials and we will take subsequent action in coordination with them,” a police press release said.

No actual arrests, in either case, were reported.

Last week’s decision by the government to ban cryptocurrency mining, citing concerns about energy in a country with an energy crisis, has drawn questions concerning its legal basis.

The Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, announcing the ban on cryptocurrency mining, referenced emergency measures for electricity protection imposed by the government on December 24, to “restrict the energy supply, valid for a maximum of 60 days”. The government implemented power reductions on December 22 due to the serious energy crisis.

But Arber Jashari, a Kosovo-based legal expert, told BIRN: “There is not enough of a legal basis for the ban of cryptocurrency mining, considering that no special law regulates this issue.”

While the government has the legal basis to take restrictive measures on electricity, there appears to be no legal framework to ban cryptocurrency mining.

On October 2021, Kosovo announced it had drafted a law on cryptocurrency which parliament was expected to adopt by the end of the last year – but the regulation is still pending.

The chairman of parliament’s Committee on Economy, Ferat Shala, was cited as saying that most activities related to cryptocurrency were registered in northern Serb-run parts of Kosovo.

This phenomenon in the north, and associated energy costs, according to him, had pushed the committee to accelerate the drafting of a law to regulate the sector.

“The good thing about this is that all operators in this sector will know that we are working and monitoring and that at some point they will be subject to applicable law,” he was quoted as saying.

BIRN previously reported on how attics, basements, garages and even whole houses in Serb-majority northern Kosovo were being rented out for cryptomining, mainly because for 22 years, northern Kosovo has paid nothing for electricity, the vital component of crytomining.

One local crypto-miner told Reuters on condition of anonymity that “he was paying around 170 euros per month for electricity, and getting around 2,400 euros per month in profit from mining”.

Platform B – Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

Together with our partners, BIRN is launching a series of online and offline events aimed at amplifying the voices of strong and credible individuals and organisations in the region that promote the core values of democracy, such as civic engagement, independent institutions, transparency and the rule of law.

As a primarily media organisation, we want to open space and provide a platform to discuss and reshape our alliances in light of the challenges facing democracies in Southeastern and Central Europe.

This comes at a critical time when the region is seeing several troubling trends towards: centralized power, reduced transparency, assaults on media, politicized judiciaries, unchecked corruption, online violations and social polarization – all amid heightened geopolitical tensions and divisions in Europe.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Platform B event series will be organised with respect for with all relevant health measures. As the situation improves, we hope to be able to host some of the events in BIRN spaces in Sarajevo and Belgrade, and elsewhere in the region.

Platform B will be an opportunity for individuals and groups to meet monthly on selected topics.


Illustration. BIRN/Igor Vujcic

Next event: Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience

Date: January 14, 2022 (Friday)

Time: 3pm-4.30pm CET

At this event, BIRN will present the main findings of its report on the position of female journalists in the Balkans, Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience.

The report highlights trends, opportunities and obstacles, identified through the sharing of experiences and perspectives by women working in the media, to paint a more nuanced and complex picture of women’s role in newsrooms, news-making and regional societies more broadly. When it comes to women journalists, prevailing narratives have focused almost exclusively on online violence and women’s vulnerability, rather than on the systems that make this type of abuse prevalent, normalized and even profitable.

This report, and accompanying platform, is an attempt to paint a picture that is more nuanced – to address the intersecting identities and diverse experiences that actually characterize women’s media – and newsrooms more specifically – and their participation and representation in the Balkans.

The report includes in-depth interviews with more than 20 female journalists, editors, fact-checkers, editor-in-chiefs and activists as well as a broad data collection, comprising a total of 175 responses BIRN obtained through an online survey conducted in October and November 2021.

Together with the authors and regional journalists and gender equality experts, we will reflect on the findings of BIRN’s report and offer some recommendations to regional media outlets, journalists’ unions and institutions on how to advance women’s positions in the newsrooms and stop perceiving them as victims but as agents of change.

A complete list of panelists is to be published soon.

Upon registration you will receive a Zoom link.

Serbian Woman’s Tweet About Male Violence Goes Viral

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

Thousands of women and girls in Serbia have shared experiences about the sexual violence they have suffered under under the hashtag #NisamPrijavila (“I didn’t report”), with more than 18,000 tweets by Monday morning, less than 40 hours since the initial tweet on the subject by an opposition activist Nina Stojakovic was posted on Saturday.

Stojakovic on December 25 tweeted accusations of systematic violence by her sister’s ex-boyfriend, a Serbian rapper known as Numero, after which thousands of girls responded with their own stories about why it is hard or impossible to report such crimes, since those close to them fear to do so and state institutions do not respond.

In the series of initial Tweets that launched the avalanche Stojkovic said Uros Radivojevic “Numero” had harassed and physically and psychologically abused his then girlfriend for a year-and-a-half. Due to that experience, her sister Lidija even tried to commit suicide, Stojkovic said.

After these attacks and harassment “put her in the hospital for week, some new therapists saw the bite marks, bruises, torn lips … [but] why they did not call the police I don’t know,” she wrote in a tweet.

“I am angered by the neighbours who listened to this brutal violence for nights and did not call the police but just complained to the landlord about the noise. I am angry at the system that do not gives any support to women beaten by their male partners,” Stojkovic tweeted, adding that her sister did not report the attacks immediately because she was terrified and suffering from depression.

Numero has since shut down all his social media accounts and refuses to answer media questions on the matter. “I don’t want to give any statements. It’s a chaos,“ he told the Telegraf tabloid.

After this another of his ex-girfriends has said he did the similar things with her.

„His closest friends knew about it because I approached them, as did my parents, my friends, the police, and the psychiatrist. As a result of that relationship, I suffered from anxiety disorder as well as panic attacks anywhere in public, physical injuries, bruises, split lips, hair loss and worst of all, [loss of] myself and my personality,” she wrote on Twitter.

The tweets have prompted thousands of women and girls in Serbia to write about their own experience and why is it hard to report these crimes, mostly blaming lack of support or relativization and disinterest by the police.

Actress Danijela Steinfeld, who this year publicly accused actor Branislav Lecic of raping her in 2012, also joined the campaign, revealing her own reasons for not going to the police immediately.

“I didn’t report it the morning after the rape, because I was broken, and I wouldn’t survive their disbelief and condemnation. When I spoke, and was forced to participate in pre-trial proceedings, despite a handful of evidence, the same thing happened. Only, now they can’t break me,” Steinfeld wrote.

The prosecution in July this year dismissed her criminal complaint saying there were no grounds for suspicion that the well-known actor committed the crime.

Massive Data Leaks in Albania Pose Public Security Question

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

A database circulating online containing private information of Albanian citizens’ salaries, and another with private information and comments on political preferences that circulated in April, have raised concerns about public security in the country.

Prosecutors in Tirana started verification hours after a massive data breach of citizens’ private information started circulating online, initially through “Whatsapp”. The data contain the salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors.

The opposition Democratic Party condemned “an extraordinary scandal” and accused the Socialist government of failing to protect citizens’ private data.

The excel file that was leaked contained the salaries of the citizens for the month of January, while another which started circulating on Thursday contained salaries for April.

On Thursday Prime Minister Edi Rama called it “an attempt to create confusion and to foster instability”, implying also that the destabilization efforts came from the country’s divided opposition.

Enri Hide, a security expert and professor at the European University in Tirana, called it “an open threat to the national security” and added that “the institutional reaction “is not at all serious and proportionate to the degree of risk”.

“First of all, it shows the weaknesses of Albania’s cyber-security infrastructure. Second, it shows the lack of a response plan in such cases,” Hide told BIRN.

Asked if a specific group of people such as Intelligence or Army are more threatened than others, Hide said that the exposure “has extremely serious consequences for Intelligence” and the military.

“The long-term consequences for the Intelligence and Security and Defence system are 1. Use of the data by foreign actors in order to monitor the payment system of the sector. 2. Now that this level is being clarified, foreign intelligence agencies may attempt to ‘intervene’ or try to ‘offer rewards’ to actors in key / sensitive positions,” he told BIRN.

He added that the private sector was also at risk by making citizens vulnerable to blackmail.

“Cyber-security must be taken seriously. We need a strategy based not on letters but on modus operandi. We need a clear protocol of what should happen if we have such leaks. There is not any and it is shameful,” he said.

Fabian Zhilla, a security expert based in Tirana, said the leak of the database with the private information of citizens data that, “the public loses trust in public institutions and the loss of trust is directly related to the cooperation that citizens should have with institutions:”. If this threat is not addressed “citizens will be exposed and blackmailed and this includes employees of important state institutions”.

“If we talk about the protection of personal data, there is no doubt that the bodies that deal with the monitoring of all servers of public institutions such as  National Agency for Information Society, AKSHI, must have a protocol and if there is no protocol … AKSHI should definitely set up a working group to make an assessment of preventive measures but also measures in case of information leaks and how it can be managed in real-time to prevent their spread in public,” Zhilla told BIRN.

He confirmed that secret service employees, intelligence services, military intelligence units and counter-terrorism units were at special risk.

“It is very important that a commission be set up at the ministerial level, perhaps with the request of Parliament to make a better assessment of the protection protocol, the measures related to the status quo of the infrastructure that the official institutions have today to protect the personal data,” he added.

The head of  AKSHI, Linda Karancaj, said on Thursday that “the tax system is not certified by ISO, but we are in the process”.

According to the National Strategy of Cyber Security 2020 -2025 “any government infrastructure under the administration of AKSHI, ISO 27001standard policies are applied”.

In April 2021, a few days before elections in the country, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys. The case is still with the prosecution.

Albanian Prosecutors Probe Huge Suspected Leak of Personal Data

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

The Tirana prosecution told BIRN that it has “started verifications” of a list allegedly containing the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens which has been circulated on social media.

It is alleged that the data contains the monthly salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors.

It is suspected that the list was leaked from the tax service or the Social Insurance Institute.

Government spokesman Endri Fuga said that the Ministry of Finance was following with concern the release of data on the salaries of Albanian citizens, and described the document as “illegal”.
Fuga said in a statement that preliminary analysis has shown that “there has been no digital export of the [state] payroll database” and that the document is a “merger of several different pieces” of data.

President Ilir Meta called it “a flagrant violation of freedoms, human rights and dignity, laws and the constitution” and urged the authorities to investigate the case and find the perpetrators.

“The personal data of every citizen, which is stored by public institutions and administered in state databases, is personal, protected by law and intended to be used only for the benefit of citizens and the state only,” Meta said.

“Any other use of it is a criminal act, which endangers the social order by violating the private security of every citizen,” he added.

The deputy leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Enkelejd Alibeaj, said it was “an extraordinary scandal” and alleged that the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama has failed to protect “personal and sensitive data on salaries, personal identification numbers, and the workplaces of over 630,000 citizens”.

Alibeaj said the Democratic Party believes that the online publication of the list “is part of a [ruling] party-state strategy to use sensitive information for electoral purposes”.

If confirmed, this would be the second time in a year that large amounts of citizens’ private data have entered the public domain.

In April 2021, a few days before the general elections in the country, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys.

Euronews Serbia Denies Editorial Changes After Orban-Linked Firm Takeover

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

Bojan Brkic, editor of Euronews Serbia, told BIRN that there will be no changes to the outlet’s editorial policy as a result of Euronews’ takeover by a Portuguese company linked to the family circle of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The purchase of Euronews has raised suspicions that it could affect the outlet’s editorial policy, given the Hungarian PM’s hostile stance towards critical media outlets in his own country.

Eyebrows were raised especially in the Balkans, where Euronews has strong presence, and where Orban has its many political and business links, especially in Serbia, where he has excellent relations with President Vucic, another leader often accused of hostility to a free press.

“Euronews Serbia’s editorial policy could, in theory, change only if Euronews’ editorial policy in Lyon [headquarters] changes. And that will not happen. Last week I was in Lyon and received new assurances, although I didn’t even need them, that there would be no change in editorial policy,” Brkic told BIRN.

“Such a change has not happened for 30 years, since Euronews existed, with all the changes of owners. Impartiality, objectivity and presentation of all opinions remain editorial principles,” he added.

On December 17, Euronews announced that Portuguese investment firm Alpac Capital, whose chief executive, Pedro Vargas David, is the son of Orban adviser Mario David, will buy an 88-per-cent share from Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris.

David is a rightist Portuguese politician, a former MEP, and currently an adviser to Orban. In April 2016, Orban was cited as calling him a “true friend” when he awarded him the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in Lisbon for “supporting Hungarian interests”.

The firm that bought Euronews has an office in Budapest and has received capital from big Hungarian companies, some linked to Orban and his ruling Fidesz party.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, in 2017 helped promote the launch of an Alpac fund aimed at regional investments, Politico wrote.

After the majority purchase of Euronews by Alpac Capital, the remaining 12 percent is still owned by a consortium of public television companies and local authorities in the EU. The pan-European media outlet has for years been subsidized by the European Commission.

Euronews’s deal in Serbia with a company owned by majority-state-owned Telekom prompted media experts to question its legality and the motives behind the move.

Experts said Euronews’ and Telekom’s joint venture, Euronews Serbia, violated a law that prohibits state-owned enterprises from founding or owning media outlets. They say it also may be used by the state to create an illusion of media freedom in Serbia.

Under the rule of Serbian Progressive Party led by President Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia has slipped steadily down the media freedom rankings of international watchdogs. Majority-state-owned Telekom has a dominant role in the media market.

Beside Serbia, Euronews has services in Albania, Romania and Greece. Euronews Greece has said it cannot comment on latest developments, while Euronews Albania did not answer BIRN’s questions by time of publication.

Pegasus Phone-Hacking Spyware Victims Named in Poland

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog that has been investigating the use of military-grade spyware from Israeli company NSO Group by authoritarian governments, said on Tuesday that the first two confirmed victims of phone-hacking using the Pegasus software in Poland are prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek and lawyer Roman Giertych.

Pegasus essentially turns infected phones into spying devices, making those who deploy the spyware able to access all data on the target’s phone, including messages and contacts.

The Associated Press, which first reported the new Citizen Lab findings on Tuesday, said that it cannot be confirmed who ordered the targeting of the two Poles.

Both targets have indicated that they suspect the Polish government.

In response to an inquiry from the AP, Polish state security spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn neither confirmed nor denied whether the government ordered the hacks.

Wrzosek is a well-known independent prosecutor who opposes the Polish government’s controversial justice reforms.

She also ordered an investigation into whether the 2020 presidential elections, which were organised during the pandemic, should have been postponed because they were too risky. Two days after she launched the case, she was transferred to a distant provincial town.

Giertych has been acting as lawyer for high-profile opposition politicians, including former Prime Minister Donald Tusk and former Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

He also defended an Austrian developer who revealed the involvement of ruling Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a huge real estate deal to build to skyscrapers in the centre of Warsaw, which caused a major scandal.

Earlier this year, an international investigation by 17 media organisations found that the Hungarian government was among those that acquired the controversial Pegasus software from Israeli surveillance company NSO and used it to target a range of journalists, businessmen and activists.

No targets in Poland or other central European countries were identified at the time, but Citizen Lab warned that it had detected spyware infections in Poland dating back to November 2017.

Poles Protest Against Law Silencing Foreign-Owned Media

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

Poles protested in 126 towns across the country over the weekend against what has been dubbed “Lex TVN”, a law prohibiting ownership of media operating in Poland by companies outside the European Economic Area – the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The law only needs the signature of President Andrzej Duda to come into force. In the past, he expressed reservations about greenlighting it straight away.

Ever since it was proposed in the summer, the law was understood to be targeting TVN, the largest private television station in Poland, owned by US company Discovery, Inc. and which often criticises the ruling Law and Justice Party, PiS.

Both the EU and the US have voiced concern. US State Department spokesman Ned Price’s statement on Friday said: “The United States is deeply troubled by the passage in Poland today of a law that would undermine freedom of expression, weaken media freedom, and erode foreign investors’ confidence in their property rights and the sanctity of contracts in Poland.”

“Once this bill becomes a law, the Commission will not hesitate to take action in case of non-compliance with EU law,” Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency warned in a statement.

TVN is owned by Discovery via a company registered in The Netherlands, but the new bill would make it impossible for TVN to operate as before even with this ownership structure.

Discovery on Friday urged President Duda not to sign the bill. Over the summer, the company had indicated it would fight back, possibly taking legal action under the terms of a longstanding bilateral treaty between the US and Poland.

The adoption of “Lex TVN” forms part of an ongoing assault on media freedom in Poland ever since PiS came to power in 2015.

The governing party first established political control over public media, then rechannelled public advertising away from independent media to the channels it controls; and, at the end of 2020, the state-controlled energy giant PKN Orlen took over the company owning most local and regional media in the country.

By Monday morning, 2 million people had signed an appeal to President Duda not to pass the law, which the text describes as an attack not only on media freedom but also on democracy.

Representatives of all major democratic opposition parties and independent media took part in this weekend’s protest actions.

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