Tuesday 11 May 2021

Ethical Code of Bulgarian National Metal Detecting Federation


Етичен кодекс на Българска Национална Федерация по Металдетектинг

Ethical Code of Bulgarian National Metal Detecting Federation     28th March 2016


Chapter 1
general provisions
Article 1. This code determined the ethical norms and rules of conduct of the members of the Bulgarian National Metal Detecting Federation, and aims to increase public confidence in their morals and to raise the prestige of the Federation.
 
Article 2. The rules in this Code are voluntary moral and ethical obligation of the members of BNMDF and, in its nature, it is provided essentially as a means of self-discipline and self-improvement.
 
Article 3. The personal conduct of members of the Federation is realized by:
 
(1) strictly observing the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Charter of BNMDF.
 
(2) not harming the prestige and interests of BNMDF in their public and personal life.
 
(3) showing respect, correctness, tolerance, by not allowing conduct that would harm the dignity and rights of the individual.
 
(4) In the communication among them, members of the Federation are equal.
 
(5) not allowing the revelation of vilifying statements and their public announcements should be aimed at objectivity and truth. Professional or personal arguments are not a subject of public polemics.
 
(6) not allowing the occurrence of a conflict of interest and private gain of material or non-material nature, executing their engagements toward the Federation.
 
Chapter Two
 
Conduct and aspect of the members of the Federation during practicing the hobby of metal detecting
 
Article 4. Members of the Federation agree to observe all laws, regulations and rules that are valid for their countries and have relation to metal detecting.
 
Article 5. Members of the Federation agree not to harm private property and not to seek on a private site without the permission of its owner.
 
Article 6. Members of the Federation agree not to seek and excavate the announced monuments of culture in Bulgaria that are of local and national significance, without the necessary permission obtained from the respective bodies.
 
Article 7. Members of the Federation agree not to pollute the environment and waters and to preserve the natural resources, animals and plants.
 
Article 8. Members of the Federation agree to fill the holes excavated by them in the ground, as well as to leave the nature and landscape in their initial form.
 
Article 9. Members of the Federation will not seek and excavate areas in which there are crops.
 
Article 10. Members of the Federation agree not to tolerate and not to practice the so-called bulldozer-excavator search.
 
Article 11. Members of the Federation agree to be polite, careful, reasonable and friendly towards other seekers and to local people, agencies and authorities.
 
Article 12. Members of the Federation agree to promote the search, finding, restoration and protection the artifacts and share their knowledge with other people.
 
Article 13. Members of the Federation agree not to harm or destroy private, municipal and state property, including equipment, signs, buildings, roads, constructions or remnants of such property.
 
Article 14. Members of the Federation agree to present, on request, information for the hobby and metal detectors, and they shall cooperate by means of advice and information to novice seekers.
 
Article 15. Members of the Federation agree to cooperate for finding lost metal objects.
 
Article 16. Members of the Federation agree to have a conduct by which they will raise the authority of other seekers, and to always remember that they are ambassadors of the metal detecting hobby around the world.
 
Chapter Three
 
Sanctions and Responsibility
 
Article 17. The sanctions as per the present Code are imposed with the aim of warning the violators to observe the ethical norms and keep the authority of the Federation before the society.
 
Article 18. For non-observance of the Ethical Code, the following sanctions are stipulated and imposed:
 
(1) warning to the member who does not observe the Ethical Code.
 
(2) notification of the members of the BNMDF and publicity of the case within the frame of the Federation.
 
(3) Proposition for exclusion from the Federation.
 
Chapter Four
 
Closing Provisions
 
Article 19. The present Code has been adopted by the Governing Committee of the Bulgarian National Metal Detecting Federation on January 22, 2010 and begins to operate immediately after its adoption.
 
Article 20. Proposals for changes and additions of the Ethical Code, signed by at least 10 members of the BNMDF, may be submitted directly also to be reviewed by the Governing Committee of the BNMDF.

5 comments:

Brian Mattick said...

Yet again it's clear how well-educated many Eastern European detectorists are compared with the British ones. But nevertheless their code is just the same dirty loopholery that the NCMD offers detectorists to show to farmers, just better expressed.

Morality, eh? A moral person is a good citizen with a sound moral compass. There's no room in that for grabbing public assets or public knowledge. They should say so, no ifs, no buts. I think, like Ron Moody, they'd better think it out again.

Paul Barford said...

This code is so obviously modelled on the NCMD one (but interesting has nothing that seems to be taken directly from the PAS one, even though they claim to be drawing on the English/Welsh experience). Most of it is about "being nice" and not damaging the reputation of the BNMDF and detecting, stay within the law. Not a single mention of reporting any finds, not even the most significant. Oh and fill yer holes and don't leave litter.

Brian Mattick said...

No mention of reporting any finds except: "share their knowledge with other people" which has NCMD all over it.

No sign of whether "other people" include the owner, the landowner, the archaeologists, the museum and the public, or just their grabby mates? No prizes for guessing. The loophole is blatantly intended to facilitate looting, like the NCMD Code else why don't they all use the one recommended by PAS?

The discouraging thing is that Bulgarian and other academics and professionals over here will be saying this is a step forward. It isn't.

Paul Barford said...

I don't know about those "other academics" but the Bulgarian ones are heartily fed up with the scale of the collection-driven looting in the country and tend to say instead "lock them up" . Which is why they set up this organization to try to pretend to be "just like the good ones in England/Wales".

Huge sums of money go on excavating what's left of Thracian tombs after artefact hunters have tampered with them... and there is not a lot of money around in general for archaeology in Bulgaria and it's being swallowed up by trying to keep up with this crowd..

Brian Mattick said...

I'm afraid "lock them up" isn't much part of the UK model judging by recent events. Had a butterfly flapped the loot from Beeston would have been rediscovered at a rally and the criminals would have been given oodles of treasure rewards and an honorable mention in the next PAS Annual Report. Or even invited to speak at a PAS conference. Stranger things have happened.

 
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