site.btaBTA Director General: 19th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media Coincides with New Parliament's First Sitting

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television here on Monday, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said that the 19th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media will be unveiled on the same day as the 50th National Assembly's first sitting, on June 19.

The forum will take place in Odesa, Bolhrad and Izmail. According to official censuses, some 150,000 Bessarabian Bulgarians call these parts of Ukraine their home. Between 50,000 and 60,000 Bulgarians live in the city of Odesa alone, which suffers from daily bombings.

The first meeting initiated by Valchev's predecessor, Maxim Minchev, saw participation by 58 media sources back in 2005. Today that number has shrunk to 18. Valchev noted it is important to point out that this year's meeting is the 19th edition, since initiatives in Bulgaria rarely get to turn into tradition, instead disappearing only to have something new take their place. Valchev said that having the 19th edition of the forum this year proves that media can be used as an example of continuity.

The first discussion of the forum will focus on the presence of Bulgarians in the media around the world. The head of BTA pointed out the importance of having the Bulgarian state support Bulgarian media abroad. The second discussion will be devoted to language and its preservation in Bulgarian media worldwide. The third talk will be about the presence of science and education in Bulgarian media around the world.

Valchev spoke about the role of AI in journalism, saying that such technology could never replace a journalist reporting from the scene, because AI relies on previously accumulated information, while the reporter uses the latest news. "So we should develop natural intelligence before we think about using artificial intelligence, which can obviously help us a lot in our work, but can by no means replace us," Valchev concluded.