Bivol.bg, also known as Bivol, is an investigative media based in Bulgaria which is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project network and an official partner of WikiLeaks. Its team comprises Atanas Tchobanov, Dimitar Stoyanov and Assen Yordanov. Tchobanov is a member of the executive committee of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. The European Commission has referred to one of Bivol's investigations known as Yaneva Gate in their 2016 report on Bulgaria under the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. This mechanism measures the country's progress in the area of corruption and judicial independence. In 2010, Assen Yordanov from Bivol.bg received a Leipzing Media Award, which is meant to "honor journalists, publishers, authors and institutions from all over the world who dedicate themselves to ensuring and developing the freedom of the press by demonstrating willingness to take risks, strong personal commitment, persistence, courage and democratic conviction." Yordanov was also nominated for an award by Reporters Without Borders in 2013. In 2019, Bivol's journalist Dimitar Stoyanov received the Axel Springer Award for investigative journalism together with a colleague from the RISE Project Romania. In 2020, Bivol journalists Atanas Tchobanov and Dimitar Stoyanov started the BIRD project, which stands for Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data. Notable Investigations Yaneva Gate In 2015, Bivol started publishing leaked recordings of conversations between two judges from the Sofia City Court, Rumyana Chenalova and Vladimira Yaneva, and the lawyer Momchil Mondeshki: the wiretaps were dubbed Yaneva Gate. The conversations allegedly show influence peddling, illegitimate pressure on the judiciary by Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, media mogul and politician Delyan Peevski and General Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, corruption, and moral degradation of the courts, including sex against career promotion. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, "the wiretaps have once again raised questions about the judiciary’s practices, lack of separation of powers, and questionable adherence to rule of law." Yaneva Gate reached the European Commission which asked Bulgarian authorities to carry out an investigation. The President of Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov also publicly called for an independent investigation because Yaneva Gate "put a stain on the courts". However, Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office and the Ethics Committee of the Supreme Judicial Council refused to investigate because they deemed the recordings were manipulated. By contrast, an independent examination by a foreign laboratory which Bivol contacted showed the recordings were authentic. One of the