site.btaState Gazette: Nation's 'Notice Board' Turns 145

"Be it hereby decreed to establish a newspaper by the name of 'State Gazette,' wherein Our decrees, all directives and orders of Our government, as well as any statements and decisions of whatever institution of State shall be promulgated," reads Decree No. 12 issued by Prince Alexander I on July 19, 1879. Appropriately, this princely decree was one of twenty such acts published in the No. 1 issue of the Gazette that came out 145 years ago this week, on Saturday, July 28, 1879.

By one of these decrees (No. 1), the monarch appointed Bulgaria's first government, headed by Todor Burmov. Another decree established the country's first diplomatic missions. "Agencies of the Principality in Constantinople, Bucharest and Belgrade are hereby established for the purpose of facilitation of the communication of the Princely Government with the Ottoman, Romanian and Serbian governments," the decree states. It appointed a Bulgarian diplomatic agent to Constantinople, allocating him "an annual salary of 10,000 French francs, plus a 4,000 franc entertainment allowance and 4,000 francs for office expenses and domestic help." Since the diplomatic mission in Constantinople was the most important one (according to the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria was "an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of H.I.M. the Sultan"), the agents in the two other Balkan capitals were to receive smaller salaries and entertainment allowances.

Prince Alexander's Decree No. 2, which also appeared in the first issue of the State Gazette, ordered the establishment of "the appropriate number of customs houses along the southern border of the Principality" and the "levy of customs duty on all foreign manufactures."

"Only manufactures originating from Eastern Rumelia and Macedonia shall be allowed to enter the Principality free of any duty whatsoever," the decree specified.

Initially, the State Gazette came out once a week, on Saturday. Annual subscription was 12 French francs, as its four-page No. 1 says.

Between 1890 and 1950 the gazette came out every weekday, and since December 1950 it has been published twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, with occasional extraordinary issues.

At first, apart from statutory instruments, the paper also carried announcements, news items and foreign dispatches. Three of the first seven dispatches signed "BTA" also appeared there, in the Unofficial Section of Issue No. 36 of February 17, 1898, a day after the agency issued its first news bulletin.

Between 1950 and 1962 the State Gazette was renamed, Soviet style, Transactions of the Presidium of the National Assembly. Since 1967, it has been publishing an annual subject and keyword index.

A 1974 State Council decree defined the State Gazette as "an official publication of the National Assembly."

Under the State Gazette Act (effective as gazetted on October 6, 1995), the State Gazette is an "official print publication of the Republic of Bulgaria" edited by a department of the National Assembly. The following statutory instruments, arranged in this order, must be promulgated in the Official Section of the State Gazette (or, if too large, in special supplements to it): the Constitution, the codes, laws, resolutions, declarations and addresses adopted by Parliament, the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, most of the decrees issued by the President, the Constitutional Court judgments together with their reasoning, decrees, regulations and ordinances adopted by the Council of Ministers, regulations, ordinances and instructions issued by individual government ministers, and Supreme Administrative Court judgments annulling statutory instruments issued by the Council of Ministers and individual ministers. These statutory instruments enter into force three clear days after their State Gazette promulgation, unless they themselves provide otherwise.

The Unofficial Section is reserved for notices and announcements of ministries, other central-government departments, academies, educational establishments and research institutes, municipalities and municipal authorities, public procurement notices, court subpoenas, judgments of court on company registration and transformation, notices of general meeting, and annual financial statements.

The current subscription for the paper version of the Gazette costs BGN 144, and the price of a single issue is BGN 1.50.

Since 1998, the State Gazette has been available in a soft-copy version as well, which is distributed on a magnetic medium or is electronically transmitted on the day of publication. As from July 1, 2008, the complete content of the online version can be accessed freely and at no charge on Parliament's website, at https://dv.parliament.bg. The paper and online versions are published simultaneously.

Congratulating the State Gazette staff on the anniversary, National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan pointed out that during its 145-year-long existence the publication has breathed life in hundreds of thousands of central and local government acts, notices and announcements. "The printing of the Gazette has never been interrupted, regardless of the domestic social, political and economic conditions, which is an extraordinary precedent for both Bulgaria and Europe," Nazaryan emphasized.