Bulgaria Detains Journalists Probing EU Funds Fraud

Bulgarian police in Pernik, a small town on the outskirts of the country's capital Sofia, on Thursday detained two investigative journalists from the independent platforms Rise Romania and Bivol Bulgaria as they researched a story on fraud involving European funds, the media outlets announced.

Attila Biro, an editor with Rise Romania, and Bivol's Dimitar Stoyanov were apprehended as they tried to film the subjects of their investigation burning documents in an empty field outside town.

Rise Romania said police handcuffed the two reporters and kept them in the field for an hour before taking them to the police station in Radomir, near Pernik.

"The Radomir police station and the Pernik police station refused to cooperate when we contacted them," Bivol wrote on their Facebook page.

"We've had no contact with our colleagues for three hours … We are witnessing unprecedented police brutality on journalists!" the outlet said.

The journalists were released after readers in both Romania and Bulgaria called the police stations in Radomir and Pernik to pressure the authorities into releasing information about the journalists. Biro also received assistance from the Romanian consulate in Bulgaria, Rise said in an update.

"Attila and Dimitar helped the Bulgarian police to carry the [rescued] documents to the police station, but the papers were burned or shredded," Rise said.

A press release of the Romanian Foreign Ministry said the Bulgarian police had said they detained the journalists for verification because they were in an area under police surveillance and that they released them after verification. 

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry told BIRN over the phone to "wait until the situation clears up for further comment".