site.btaUPDATED Esteemed Journalist Ivan Garelov Dies Aged 81

Following a prolonged illness, esteemed journalist Ivan Garelov has passed away in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Pirogov Hospital said.

In mid-July, Garelov was urgently admitted to the neurosurgery unit at Pirogov Hospital after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

"The anchors, who are the face of journalism, should fight a battle for truth, to sacrifice themselves, their own interests, the petty comforts, in the name of pursuit for truth. People appreciate that," Garelov told BTA in an interview on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Garelov worked at BTA between 1969 and 1972.

Ivan Garelov was born on February 6, 1943 in the southern village of Smilets. An incident in his life led him to his chosen career: that of a journalist. He chose it when he was 14 years old. He was in Pazardzhik and waited in line to get on the bus. The driver kept them out in the rain and wouldn't let them on the bus.  The outraged youngster wrote a story about that and sent it to a local newspaper. It got published and Garelov even got paid for it. It was then that he decided to become a journalist and never regretted his choice.

Defying his parents' arguments against a career as a journalist, he graduated in journalism from Sofia University. He took his first reporting jobs while he was still a student. Upon graduation, he was appointed at Narodna Mladezh daily.

In 1969, he was hired at BTA, largely thanks to his command of the Greek language. He learned it after finishing university, when he was sent to Greece for five months on an assignment by the Committee for Overseas Cultural Relations. In 1972 he published a travelogue from Mt. Athos in BTA's Paraleli magazine. He stayed an editor with BTA until 1972.

He started work at the Bulgarian National Television in 1973. During his career there he made interviews with prominent international figures and documentaries from his travels abroad: more than 30 of them, from Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Vietnam, Cambodia and Afghanistan. His 1979 documentary on Cambodia after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge is included in the journalism programme of New Bulgarian University and is taught in documentary film courses of US universities.

He covered extensively the Middle East conflict, showing much empathy for the Palestinians' unfortunate situation. During his trips, Garelov acquired a son. He first met Ahmed, a Palestinian buy then aged 13, in Lebanon in 1979. They met again in 1982 in Beirut during its siege. Garelov took Ahmed with him, sneaked him across the border and brought him to Bulgaria. Here, the young man finished high school and then graduated in medicine. He returned to Lebanon in 1992.

Garelov was a long-time anchor of the Panorama weekly political talkshow of Bulgarian National Television. He joined the Panorama team eight years after it was established, first as deputy editor-in-chief and producer. He became the host in 1979 - and stayed there until 2000.

At the beginning of 1986 Ivan Garelov published his first two books, I come from Israel and Attila vs. Aphrodite. In 2013, he presented his first memoir, Not Far and Not Long Ago, written on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The book is a first-person account of real events that have become part of world politics. On February 25, 2016, Ivan Garelov presented his book Here and Now, focusing on the Panorama programme and his career as a journalist. In 2017, he published They'll Drive Us Crazy. The Second Life of What Has Been Written, in which he collects his most significant articles and commentaries published in the Bulgarian press from 1989 to the end of 2016. In 2022, he published Unsent Letters to Margarita.

In a Facebook post on the journalist's passing, President Rumen Radev called him "one of the most remarkable personalities in Bulgarian journalism". "Ivan Garelov's professionalism was built not only on solid moral foundations, rich erudition and journalistic standards, but also on a civic conscience, which he protected from undue interferences to become an example of courageous journalism. He was aware of his responsibility as a public figure and did not back down from his commitment to the truth in order to fulfil his most important mission: to serve society with his critical and impartial positions. His objective reading of events was a reliable reference point for the audience and an essential part of the efforts to defend pluralism of opinions in the media environment in Bulgaria."