site.bta13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media Ends

Chisinau, October 7 (BTA) - Speaking at the closing of the 13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media here on Saturday, BTA Director Maxim Minchev said that all possible efforts will be made to continue organising this annual event because it has remained the only forum that brings the guild together. The event was organised by BTA and the Association of Bulgarian Media Worldwide in the Moldovan capital.

"This is the 13th time that we gather, and over the years our profession has changed very quickly, but the most important thing in this dynamic is to preserve journalists' morality," Minchev added.

At the end of the forum, the participating journalists adopted a common position in which they express their professional solidarity with Nova TV host Viktor Nikolaev, who on Friday was threatened with dismissal by Anton Todorov MP of GERB and Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov over a question asked during Nikolaev's show. The position also expresses resentment at the attempts at political pressure on journalists and belief that the profession's dignity depends on upholding the critical function of journalism.

On the last day of the 13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, Maxim Bozhilov who has been publishing a newspaper and broadcasting the Bulgarian Horizons radio programme in Canada for nearly 20 years, received the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria annual award for contribution to the distribution of Bulgarian culture by a Bulgarian media abroad. The award was conferred by Mitko Todorov, Executive Director of the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria National Endowment Fund.

Earlier in the day, the participants in the forum discussed the role of media in education.

Media expert Georgi Lozanov said that thanks to the media, people today are much better educated than those a century ago, and can be called citizens in the true sense of the word. According to him, another aspect of the media is to educate through targeted methodologically constructed formats and programmes on specific topics.

Bulgarian National Television (BNT) Director General Konstantin Kamenarov said that there is a huge difference between being educated and being informed. He presented a new BNT format that will be launched next autumn and will be dedicated to education and broadening the culture of Bulgarians in this country and abroad.

Adviser on public communications Stefan Avgustinov presented the topic of fake news. In his words, it is modern to have a personal online media because the maintenance of a website is not expensive and ever more people decide this is a way to exert influence. The level of journalism drops because everyone can create their own website, he added. Despite the new platforms, 90 per cent of Bulgarians still acquire information from television and it remains a leading factor in the public opinion's formation, Avgustinov added.

According to Council for Electronic Media head Sofia Vladimirova, fake news do not appear where regulation exists; still, obligatory regulation should give way to self-regulation.

The 13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media took place with the support of Sopharma, Huvepharma, Dundee Precious Metals, and Aurubis Bulgaria.