site.btaBTA Helps Bring Bulgarian Media from All Over World Together for 13th Time

Sofia, October 2 (BTA) - Representatives of over 30 leading news media in Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Spain, the Vatican, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, the United States and Canada will get together between October 4 and 8 for the annual BTA-co-organized World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, which this time will be held in Moldova.

This 13th edition of the event is themed "Policies of Closeness." Besides the state of Bulgarian communities abroad, the discussions will also focus on new education platforms, the link between business, education and the economy, the transfer of staff and technologies, and the responsibility of the media for preserving the Bulgarian language.

Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova will be a special guest at the forum, which will also be attended by the rectors of seven Bulgarian universities, educators and experts, representatives of government institutions, members of parliament, business people and intellectuals.

Moldova was picked to host the 13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media because the country and the wider region are home to the largest compact community of ethnic Bulgarians outside Bulgaria. Various estimates put the number of Bulgarians in Moldova at between 80,000 and 100,000. Very close by, in neighbouring Ukraine, there are other large Bulgarian communities which total between 250,000 and 300,000 people.

The participants in the 13th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media will visit the Moldovan town of Taraclia, where 85 per cent of the population are ethnic Bulgarians. At Taraclia State University, Bulgarian has been a teaching language for 12 years now. A BTA press club will be unveiled in Taraclia, bringing the news agency's network of press centres to 15 outlets. It will be the second BTA press club outside Bulgaria after the one in Bosilegrad, Serbia, which was set up a year and a half ago. A trilateral agreement between Taraclia State University and the universities in the Bulgarian cities of Veliko Turnovo and Rousse will be signed during the World Meeting.

The highlights of the forum's cultural programme include the BTA photo exhibition "Born Free," presenting the Bulgarian press of the 19th-century. Twenty-nine photo panels will feature newspapers and magazines published more than 130 years ago.

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

The World Meetings of Bulgarian Media are organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Association of Bulgarian Media Worldwide. The annual meetings held since 2005 in Sofia, Chicago, Rome, Madrid, Varna and Bourgas, Vienna, the Hague, Bucharest, Plovdiv and Veliko Turnovo, Bosilegrad and Caribrod (Dimitrovgrad), Athens, and Prague have been national events of major public impact receiving broad publicity in and outside Bulgaria.