Zero Hedge, Bulgaria, and Me
Much to my surprise, my blog post last month about the popular US website Zero Hedge and its ties to Bulgaria has turned into a big story in Buglaria.
If you can read Bulgarian here’s some of the coverage:
Club.bg story on Zero Hedge and me
Frog News.bg story on Zero Hedge and me
English language Q&A with Frog News’ Diana Yonkova (Bulgarian version)
Here’s what happened: On December 23rd, I received word that a criminal complaint has been filed against me with the general prosecutor in Bulgaria.
The complaint was filed by Krassimir Ivandjiiski, who registered the Zero Hedge website in Bulgaria and manages the company that owns it.
Krassimir’s son, Daniel, runs Zero Hedge, which publishes a mix of finance, global news and pro-Russia commentary and is popular with right-wingers and people like Donald Trump Jr. and Nigel Farage.
Krassimir Ivandjiiski has accused me of various “crimes.” I should note that Mr. Ivandjiiski did not tell me what crimes I had allegedly committed, nor did he inform what country’s laws I may have violated. He also refused to provide me a copy of the complaint, but he did send me an English translation that I have posted here as a PDF.
According to Mr. Ivandjiiski it’s a crime to reveal public information such as Zero Hedge’s domain registration and corporate filings. He is also upset that I pointed out the blatantly anti-Semitic content he publishes on his Buglarian website, Strogo Sekretno (Top Secret).
Krassimir Ivandjiiski demanded that I take down my blog post by December 31st, which I have refused to do. I have hired a lawyer in Bulgaria, Nikolay Hadjigmenov to represent my interests. It would set a terrible precedent if I am charged with a crime for writing a story someone didn’t like.
I’ve set up a GoFundMe to defray the costs of representation, as I make no money from this site and assume the legal risks myself. So if you support this kind of work and value a free press, please consider making a donation.
“It would set a terrible precedent if I am charged with a crime for writing a story someone didn’t like.”
True. Same if you were silenced in the digital public square, or if your site was blocked by ISP’s, for posting a story someone didn’t like.
It’s a terrible precedent that such a thing happened to ZeroHedge, firstly because some commenters unaffiliated with the site said racist things, and secondly after a BuzzFeed journalist (who is also a pedophile who doxes people for real), wrote on Twitter that, in his expert opinion, ZeroHedge “threatened and doxed someone” (when it was a suggestion to write letters and the “dox” was public information!)
Freedom of Speech applies to those you find most repugnant, or it doesn’t apply at all.
I think that pushing repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories that claim the President is secretly a Russian asset, in order to sell books to far-left TDS-suffering rubes, is quite repugnant. But I’d never suggest that anyone should silence your site, because that is your right to have that opinion. Attempting to silence your critics (via the charge of “far right” and “conspiracy theories”) is a very cowardly move, and one that someone in your position, as the owner of a conspiracy website that caters to the far left, would have to perform an awful lot of mental gymnastics to justify!
If you think that ZeroHedge isn’t an accurate source of information, then you should be content to sit and watch them make fools of themselves! The fact that your site as well as the failing Mainstream Media is attacking them for being “disinformation” and “right-wing” and “racist” and trying to have their reach restricted, is only further testimony of their accuracy. After all, “you catch the most flak when you’re over the target”!