First world meeting of the Bulgarian media, Sofia, 23-25 May

Labeled Bulgarian

The National Palace of Culture was the host, while the initiator and organizer was the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA). Over 70 journalists working for 58 media in 24 countries on three continents gathered together at this unique meeting, which was attended by more than 200 representatives of Bulgarian printed and electronic editions, radio stations and TV channels.

Most of the editions, previously unknown to us, contain the adjective “Bulgarian” in their names. Which is only natural. Bulgarian News, Bulgarian Voice (Athens), Bulgarian Horizons (Toronto) and the Sound of Bulgaria (Montreal), Bulgarian Voice (Taraklia, Moldova), Bulgarian News (Moscow), Bulgaria 21st C. and Bulgaria (Chicago), Bulgarians (Prague), etc. At a stall at the entrance I also had the chance to feast my eyes on and hold in my hands the issues of the endearingly sounding Native Land (Odessa, Ukraine), Alarm Clock (France), Spring (Crimea), Review (California), Nedelnik (New York), Mother Tongue (Kishinev)…

One of the objectives of the meeting was to lay the foundations of a Bulgarian information pool, which the journalists will use to exchange news and experience. Salutatory addresses to the participants in the forum were made by Mr. Maxim Minchev, BTA Director General, and the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Plamen Panayotov. Special guests were Mr. Al Ripinger, Regional Director of AP for Central and Eastern Europe, Mr. Vitaliy Ignatenko, Director General of ITAR TASS, Dr. Wolfgang Vyslozil, Managing Director of the Austrian Press Agency.

During the working meeting a number of topics were highlighted, among them “The image of Bulgaria in the media and the role of journalism in creating an objective picture of the processes in Bulgaria,” moderated by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov. “How the Bulgarian media inform about the European Union. Language, messages, facts, feedback”, moderated by Polya Stancheva, Bulgarian National Radio Director General, “Media-institutions interrelations” and “Media-media. How we communicate”, moderated by Lyuba Rizova, News Dept. Director of bTV, “How to be Bulgarian in the globalizing world and united Europe. National identity and all-European values - the role of the media”, moderated by Georgi Koritarov from Nova TV. Everyone was given the chance to share their opinion.

I spoke over a cup of coffee with Mr. Evgeni Veselinov, publisher of Review newspaper, also named “the first and only Bulgarian newspaper in California”. It is circulated across the West Coast of the USA and is in great demand among the Bulgarians living there. Our national coat of arms and flag are set in the foreground next to the title, below which it reads Fire Dancers in America. “It is about life in emigration,” Evgeni explained to me. “About all of us, who have chosen to have the glowing embers of America under our feet. The point is how to integrate into these embers. Which are not our native, but foreign. So they burn you even more. They burn your feet and it is hard to survive, to preserve your identity. Not everyone understands me when it comes to emigrants like me, but… I love my fatherland and help it as an emissary of sorts, far away from its boundaries,” my interlocutory said in conclusion.

I could not get hold of a copy of Bulgarian Voice newspaper, but I came across Mr. Dimitar Borimechkov, who is its editor-in-chief. The newspaper has been coming out for quite a few years in the Moldavian town of Taraklia inhabited by 18,000 ethnic Bulgarians. Unfortunately, only when adequate funds are available for this purpose. As a matter of fact, there is a huge difference in the way the newspapers of our compatriots in Moldova and Ukraine are written and published. They are intended for a diaspora of about 550,000 Bulgarians, their publication is more difficult in the conditions of the dictates of a Russian language environment, in countries lagging far behind economically. Where the salaries of our compatriots are infinitely small, and understandably there are hardly any sponsors. However, these newspapers are imbued with sadness and homesickness, while there is a thorough lack of information about the homeland. The situation here is further aggravated by a visa regime, the assimilation existing in one form or another, a myriad of difficulties, and the century-long plight of our ancestors who settled down in a wilderness. I think that what was hardly perceivable in the hall and what I find most painful is that the Bulgarian journalists seemed to take greater interest in our compatriots in the civilized western world. Naturally, their self-confidence was much higher as a result of their well-being… Regardless of the reasons for ending up in a foreign country, on the glowing embers of an emigrant’s life.