Photo: Dospat Municipality
“Big Brother is watching you” – the words from George Orwell’s dystopia “1984” seem to come to life in the small Rhodope town of Dospat. Here, Mayor Elin Radev (GERB) has introduced video surveillance in every municipal office, and the doors leading to the employees remain locked for citizens. The reality in the Rhodopes is already reminiscent of the dark world of Oceania, where one cannot take a step without being watched by the invisible eye of the Government.
The signals about the “Dospat Big Brother” and the journalistic investigation
Several times I received information about the so-called “Dospat Big Brother”. At first, I did not want to believe that this was true and that the mayor personally installed monitors in his office to watch the camera recordings. It’s as if he had nothing else to do. Since I couldn’t just go in and check the signals (they wouldn’t let me in), I decided to use the time of the Municipal Council meeting on December 19, 2024 – an event where, by law, they cannot deny me access to the corridors of the Dospat government.
During the meeting, I walked around the rooms and calmly filmed the cameras in the rooms where the employees had left their doors open. Each room turned out to have its own camera, aimed at the desks of the employees. In one of the rooms, I tried to film the camera in the presence of the employee. I had my phone ready and tried to focus it. At that very moment, the woman, who had seemed calm until then, froze: “You are not allowed to film! Please leave!” she almost shouted and started to push me out of the room. Her look spoke of true horror – as if she expected someone to hold her accountable for every photo I took.
It turned out that the balcony of the building, where employees go out to smoke, is also under surveillance. Probably not a single step goes unnoticed there either. Later, I also found photos from Elin Radev’s office, showing the monitors from which he watches.
“The government must see without being seen”
In the office of Mayor Elin Radev, there are two screens – one on the desk and a large one on the wall – that transmit real-time views from corridors, rooms and balconies. Like the telescreens in Orwell’s “1984”, they “train” employees to be careful: their every move is on display. Mayor Elin Radev hides what the monitor on his desk shows and turns it off when a journalist or an outsider enters.
But during his meeting with the GERB candidate for MP and his fan, the monitor on the mayor’s desk clearly shows how he is monitoring his employees.
In “1984”, the characters do not have a single hidden corner. In Dospat, both officials and citizens fall under a network of cameras. There is no corner for a smoke break – the “observer” lurks on the balconies again. Contrary to any idea of open administration, the principle “The government should see without being seen” seems to prevail here.
“Whoever controls the present, controls the past”
Just like Big Brother, who does not need to be physically present, it is enough to project himself as an omnipotent eye. In fact, Radev himself rarely appears at the meetings of the Municipal Council (according to councilors, he has attended only once in five years), but on the other hand, he follows every discussion live from his office monitors. “Whoever controls the present, controls the past, and whoever controls the past, controls the future” – wrote Orwell. In Dospat, it seems that the mayor controls every word in the Council, without even being in the hall.
As in the dystopia, where the Party dictates the rules, here too there is talk of a “sole” (and all-seeing) figure of the first party and state leader, who decides whether “anyone else” can participate in the distribution of public procurement contracts at all. (In addition to being the mayor of Dospat, Elin Radev is also the municipal leader of GERB, and the party’s organizational secretary is the chairman of the Municipal Council, Adalbert Ferev – b. a.) Municipal councilors from the opposition ask questions about mayoral businesses, illegal construction, and property near the dam, but the answers are often lacking. The disputes bring a flavor of “1984” – anyone who is not “with us” risks being declared an “enemy.”
The legal and moral aspect of video surveillance
In the modern world, video surveillance aims to ensure security and prevent crimes. If the cameras in the municipal administration in Dospat are installed to ensure the safety of employees from potentially aggressive or unscrupulous citizens, then this is not only not reprehensible, but even desirable. However, when citizens do not have access to the offices, the main argument for such prevention is missing. In addition, video surveillance in the workplace would not be a problem if it were carried out by a responsible employee – a security guard, in a separate room, who has signed the necessary documents and is responsible for not abusing the personal data of employees. In this particular case, however, the mayor personally monitors all the video cameras from his office, which raises questions about the purposes and methods of this surveillance.
The lesson from Orwell: the truth always comes out
If there is one thing that Orwell teaches us, it is that no matter how many cameras are installed, the truth cannot be completely hidden. It is revealed as soon as citizens speak out, and the actions of “Big Brother” come under the spotlight of public attention. As was the case with the purposely formed temporary parliamentary commission in August last year to verify facts and circumstances regarding corrupt practices and systematic abuse of office by the mayor of Dospat municipality Elin Radev.
On September 26, 2024, with 104 votes “For” (PP-DB, BSP, ITN and non-members of parliamentary groups) and 64 “Against” (all from the GERB-SDF parliamentary group), the deputies adopted the report of the temporary commission. In a volume of 60 pages, the report was essentially a retelling of statements made by people from Dospat and representatives of the authorities invited to the hearing. The chairman of the commission, Alexander Valchev, read it in its entirety in about an hour and a half and, despite the break, almost ran out of breath on the podium. After a heated debate, the report was sent to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the State Financial Inspection Agency (SFI), the National Revenue Agency, and the State Agency for National Security. But then silence fell again on the “Elin Radev” case.
Therefore, the bitter question remains: will reality bring down the dystopian fortress of Dospat, or will the echoes of the cameras continue to echo through the corridors of the municipality, reminding us that “Big Brother” is not asleep?
