site.btaOne Hundred Twenty-Seven and Forty and a Half of Them

BTA appeared on Bulgaria’s media landscape 127 years ago, on February 16, 1898.

I, on the other hand, appeared at the agency 86 years later, on August 1, 1984.

So we’ve been together for forty-and-a-half years now, BTA and me.

It hasn’t been an easy relationship for either of us. There has been respect, awe and affection, but also frustration, irritation and anger. The feelings have been mutual.

* * *

Life has never been plain sailing for the agency. Before my arrival, it had witnessed and covered regional and global conflicts, military coups, waves of political violence verging on civil war, and a radical change of the social system.

I joined in the midst of a strenuous campaign to convince the world that my country had not tried to kill the pope. Then, BTA was cast as a key player in justifying a dystopian drive to force nearly a million Bulgarian citizens to change their birth names and renounce their ethnic identity. Shortly after that, democracy broke out. The mirage of “developed” socialism gave way to the harsh realities of developing capitalism – a process that is still ongoing.

During its 127 years, BTA has gone through many institutional transformations, from a ministry division or directorate, to a Council of Ministers’ committee, an autonomous cultural institution, and, finally, an independent national news organization. Its 32 directors have cut across the spectrum – from professional journalists to diplomats to outright nomenklatura appointees. Its cash flow has varied from full-scale self-financing to partial or complete state-budget subsidy. Its staff has grown from just two employees (including the director) in its earliest days to several hundred today. Its external service started with French, then expanded to English, Russian and German, added Spanish next, and was finally left with English only. The agency’s hardware has evolved in line with the latest technological advances. At one point it survived an attempt to be closed down and, at another, it ousted its boss through an unprecedented work stoppage.

One thing, however, has never changed: as a critical government institution, BTA has always known the truth, but has not always reported it – at least not to the general public. For a substantial part of its existence, the agency was used as a tool for filtering the real news, withholding and twisting information, and spreading lies and unabashed propaganda. Small wonder foreign media sometimes dismissively credited it as “Bulgaria’s state-run news agency”.

Thank God, this has no longer been the case for 35 years now.

The truth is the one and only thing the national news agency owes to the public for the public money that keeps it running. To the public – not to the powers-that-be who hold the purse strings. The truth is everyone’s fundamental human right, not a privilege for the chosen few.

* * *

I was asked to write a birthday story for BTA in my capacity as an old-timer. The idea, apparently, wasn’t simply to catalogue dates, facts, figures, and remarkable achievements, but to share some exciting and lesser known moments from my several-decades-long career at the agency against the backdrop of its venerable history – a time span straddling three centuries, from the end of the 19th to the first quarter of the 21st.

Instead, I broke every single rule of news agency journalism. I didn’t keep myself out of the story, wasn’t balanced and objective, failed to give the full picture, used every judgmental noun and adjective that came to mind, forgot all about lead, amplification and background, and let loose emotion and bias.

No regrets, no apologies.

The birthday story came out like a birthday cake: gorgeous to look at, impossible to resist – and full of sinfully delicious things that make you put on weight.

Never mind – it’s time to party.

Happy birthday, BTA!