site.btaMontana Is Last Regional Capital to Have BTA Press Club

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is opening a National Press Club in the northwestern town of Montana on Monday. It is the 40th press club in Bulgaria and abroad and the last to open in a regional capital.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev will open the new press club in the presence of Montana Mayor Zlatko Zhivkov, MPs, Regional Governor Ivaylo Antonov, representatives of local government and cultural institutions, journalists and members of the public.

On May 9, Kiril Valchev and Zlatko Zhivkov signed an agreement whereby the municipality provided premises for a correspondent's bureau with a National Press Club. BTA has had correspondents in Montana for about 50 years.

So far, BTA has opened 26 press clubs in the regional centres, four elsewhere in the country, six abroad and two mobile press clubs.

The regional centres where BTA has opened press clubs are Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Stara Zagora, Targovishte, Haskovo, Shumen and Yambol. Kazanlak, Petrich, Samokov and Svishtov also have BTA press clubs.

BTA has a press club at the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island in Antarctica.

Outside the country, BTA has press clubs in Ankara (Turkiye), Bosilegrad (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Odesa (Ukraine), Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia) and Taraclia (Moldova). 

The agency has two mobile press clubs - on the the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) and at the International Book Fair in Sofia.

It is BTA's policy to have its own media hubs in the neighboring countries and in countries with large Bulgarian communities. The press clubs are a preferred place for communication between the media and representatives of business, politics, culture and sports. Press conferences, discussions, exhibitions and other events are hosted there, and institutions, organizations and the public report news from the region, which is spread by BTA at national level, and abroad through BTA's English Service.