KONSTANTIN PAVLOV (44) is a renowned political Bulgarian Blogger and activist. He is is filming, photographing and writing about the political movements and the street prostests against the Bulgarian government since 2009. Selina Nowak asked him why. 
Blog: http://komitata.blogspot.co.at
Twitter: https://twitter.com/komitata
NGO: http://14january.net
SN
Why are you doing all this? You dont have a journalistic background.
KP
I am an engineer in telecommunications, in 1998 I founded with 2 of my friends the web company Netinfo. We wanted to take advantage of the rapid development of Internet technology & media at that time. Netinfo turned out very well. At the moment it’s the biggest web media group in Bulgaria. I left the active development in October 2000 and sold my stocks in 2006 and started the blog right after I sold the shares. It soon became one of the most popular blogs in Bulgaria. I was writing about everything but gradually it became specialized as a political blog.
In 2009 me and Asen Genov founded the NGO 14th of January. We have several projects. One of these projects is statistics on the special investigative tools that the Bulgarian Law Enforcement Authorities use to fight crime, the second project is a web TV show that features conversations & interviews with famous politicians or figures that have political influence in Bulgaria. The third project is for measuring the hypocrisy in Bulgarian political life. We write down promises of Bulgarian politicians and then we look what they have done with all those promises.
SN
You were accused of being financed by George Soros as part of an US-supported conspiracy to organize the street protests and overthrow the government.
KP
Our foundation is financed by the Trust For Civil Society in Central & Eastern Europe. We followed the procedure. They put a call for projects, we submitted and were approved. We are financed for the projects that I told you, not financed to organize street protests or to overthrow the government.
SN
Some people say this is a fight between Bulgarian business circles. Deljan Peevski & Tsvetan Vassilev versus Ivo Prokopiev. You are being accused to have a close relation to Prokopiev.
KP
It’s very difficult to prove that you dont have a sister. I have to deny all these accusations, I have never taken any money from Ivo Prokopiev, I have never worked with his media group or business group, I have been introduced to him about a month ago when they celebrated 25 years of his Newspaper Kapital. It is total rubbish from the beginning to the end.
SN
How do you feel when you are being accused of working for different interest groups?
KP
Generally I feel very entertained. I collect all these articles. Most of the time it’s quite funny to read all this nonsense about yourself. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying.DerStandard did several pieces on Bulgaria. In one of these stories my name was personally involved (http://derstandard.at/1373513374541/Wegweiser-durch-die-Sofia-Proteste
Article July 23 2013 by Markus Bernarth, in which he explains an illustration, that had been published in a newspaper owned by the oligarch/mafioso Peevski. This illustration accuses the Bulgarian protests to be a conspiracy by US-financed NGOs).
Nobody from DerStandard called me or asked me if this is true, whether I was involved in the story. I think there is some kind of problem within der Standard with their dealing with Bulgaria. They have to make the things clearer to the public, not dimmer. Why they throw all these names and all these schemes? This is clearly participation in the propaganda war against the protests and the only reason for such articles in foreign media is to be quoted back by Bulgarian media.
SN
How are you engaged in the protests?
KP
I am engaged by personal decision and not because I am paid for it. I really believe that we in Bulgaria need a radical political change and that we need to overthrow this government. That is very important in order to keep the European orientation of Bulgaria and also its democracy.
SN
But do you think anything will change after new elections? This government was elected recently after the previous government was overthrown by protests.
KP
Yes I think a lot of things will change after the elections. The elections are a new way of getting confidence. When somebody makes a political mistake, he should pay for it. This coalition made some things that border to criminal acts and the only way that they could clear their name and get new confidence from voters is new elections. That is how democracy works. What would be the results of the next elections is an important question. But the most important question is, that we have a working democracy.
SN
Since the Arab Spring, the Internet & Social Media are being hyped as essential for protest movements. Is it the same in Bulgaria?
KP:
I think this is something like a global trend. A trend that tries to empower the so called „Global Cititzen“. I believe there is a new class emerging in the world, which we can call the „Global Cititzen“. A person who uses actively the Internet, and does not quite get the national border & the national issues. He is more „supernational“ with more global thinking. There are people in the whole world who feel the same way. I believe all these protests in Turkey, in the Arab world, in Russia – although they do not share the same political goals, they share the same spirit of the „Global Cititzen“, that tries to overcome borders and to be a cititzen on his own, not a cititzen who depends on his country.
SN
This „Global Cititzen“ usually is in a very privileged position. A upper/middle class child, educated, mobile, etc. But the masses are not able to switch borders and languages that easily. Do you think the „Global Cititzen“ can change local problems?
KP
Yes, we have the historical example. The medieval cities and their emerging middle classes, were the engine for change in the Middle Ages to transform the Medieval society to a modern society. Overmore, if you count the people who are active in Facebook or Google services, they are more than nearly every country in the world. There are real communities. What makes a country, is the community. So we have all these virtual countries on the Internet. In the beginning everybody considers them some kind of a joke that is not very serious. But I believe that this is something the future we see now.
