site.btaIn Bratislava, BTA Director General Says Bulgarian Communities Worldwide Should Be Visible

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev told Bulgarians in Bratislava it is very important that Bulgarian communities around the world should be visible. He also said it was very moving to meet people in the Slovak capital who say: "I have finished the Bulgarian school."

Valchev was in Bratislava for the 75th anniversary of the Hristo Botev Bulgarian Secondary School, which celebrated its 75th anniversary on Thursday. On Friday, he participated in a meeting with the Bulgarian community in Bratislava together with Vice President Iliana Iotova, the Education and Science Minister's Chief of Office, Natalia Mihalevska, Bulgarian Union of Teachers President Yanka Takeva and Bulgaria's Ambassador to Slovakia Vassil Petkov.

Valchev said access to BTA's news services has been free of charge for two years now and all the information is free. He said: "It is quite convenient; as the Vice President said, she starts the day with BTA's news. One can see what is happening in Bulgaria and it is shown in a way different to the news on television and other websites. I can only imagine what it's like to be abroad, and to be burdened with rows, arguments, trifles every day. This is how things are done by Bulgarian media outlets in general. At BTA journalists cannot make assessments and say what they think about someone, we only give the facts. You can very easily get informed about what is going on in Bulgaria."

The Director General stressed that Bulgarian communities around the world should be visible. He told the Bulgarians in Bratislava how expats can find a place in BTA's news: "The BG World section on BTA's website covers everything that happens to Bulgarians around the world, as long as we know about it. Our main sources are organizations of Bulgarians, schools, churches, Bulgarians prominent in some area."

Iliana Iotova said BTA's BG World section is a platform for sharing information about events and for communicating with each other.

The Vice President said: "Since Kiril Valchev became Director General, a very special and large part of the news agency's activity is dedicated to making Bulgarian communities abroad visible after years of anonymity. This is done through a special platform that we discussed at the beginning. Maybe it is not on the scale I personally wanted because I thought this should be done by the national institutions, but the project was piloted by BTA, for which I would like to sincerely thank Mr Valchev."

Iotova added that "this is a wonderful place where every single event, every single opinion can be uploaded".

Valchev said: "The big idea is to build a habit, which is already here, thanks to the Embassy, the Cultural Centre and the school. Our strategy is simple - we want to know what is happening in every major Bulgarian community around the world."

BTA's Director General also suggested that Bulgarian children from the upper grades who live in Slovakia and are interested in journalism could be invited to Bulgaria. They could do a one-week internship at BTA and some of them could decide to study journalism in Bulgaria. This is a feasible project, BTA could finance this trip, he said.

Valchev presented the school's principal, Nikolay Yordanov, with a medal and a postage stamp commemorating BTA's 125th anniversary, which is marked in 2023.