site.btaUPDATED BTA Press Club Opens in Razgrad

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) opened a National Press Club in the northeastern town of Razgrad on Wednesday. The opening event is scheduled for the day when a traditional festival of yogurt and folk crafts starts in town.

The ribbon was cut by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, Regional Governor Dragomir Zlatev, Deputy Mayor Dobrin Dobrev, Economy Minister Bogdan Bogdanov and Municipal Council chair Stoyan Nenchev. Among the guests were local and central government officials, culture figures and friends of BTA. 

The new BTA press club will be using a municipal property free of charge for a period of five years.

As the opening ceremony took place on the first day of a traditional festival of yogurt and folk crafts, which is a major event for Razgrad, yogurt was prominent in the opening address of BTA Director General Kiril Valchev. He used the recipe for a popular yogurt made in nearby Getsovo as a metaphor for success, that BTA tries to follow. 

He said there are eight rules for the recipe to work. The first is to be at the right place (the BTA press club is in the central square of Razgrad). The second rule is to use the right ingredients (Razgrad offers BTA a lot to write about: vibrant business life, rich culture and accord among various ethnicities.) The third is to follow the steps in the recipe (the opening of the BTA press club was a well-planned step and is equipped to be a state-of-the-art facility). Fourth, a job well done is evident in the final result (for BTA it is to report the real news). The fifth rule is to have the right people (the BTA Director General gave credit to the BTA local reporters through the years). Sixth is to have help from above (in the case of the BTA press club in Razgrad the help came from the local authorities that provided the office). The seventh rule for success is to aim high (just as BTA has the high aim of opening a nation-wide network with reporters and press clubs). Finally, the eighth rule is to follow up on the traditions (BTA is 125 years old and is the oldest media organization).

Economy Minister Bogdanov said in his remarks that Bulgaria has many things to be proud of and the question is how to get this news to reach people inside and outside the country. "With the support of the BTA, with the team you have built, with the infrastructure, I believe that Bulgaria, Bulgarian industry will have its worthy voice," he added. He also said that it is very important for the government to spread work of the success stories and make sure other businesses and ordinary people hear about them.

Deputy Mayor Dobrin Dobrev said that it is a matter of prestige for a regional capital to have "under its roof" a national media "which has established itself as an innovative media, which is at the heart of events, which is an extremely good and reliable partner". In his words, BTA does all this impartially, in the interest of the citizens. 

In his remarks on the occasion, Regional Governor Dragomir Zlatev recalled the first talks he had with the BTA Director General about the idea of opening a press club in Razgrad "on a cold day". "Now as the weather got hot, the press club is already a fact. You present the real news for Bulgaria," Zlatev said.

Razgrad has been present in the BTA news flow since the 1970s.

BTA currently has 24 press clubs in regional capitals and three in municipal centres - Kazanlak, Samokov and Svishtov. BTA has six national press clubs outside the country: Ankara (Turkiye), Bosilegrad (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Odessa (Ukraine), Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia) and Taraclia (Moldova). The opening of press offices outside the country is part of the BTA plan to open media centres in all neighbouring countries as well as in countries with large Bulgarian communities. A BTA press club was also opened on board the first Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril I Metodii during its voyage to Antarctica and back from December 27, 2022 to May 2, 2023.