site.bta10th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media Is Mottoed "Patriotism in a Global World"

108 POLITICS - WORLD MEETING OF BULGARIAN MEDIA

10th World Meeting
of Bulgarian Media Is Mottoed
"Patriotism in a Global World"


Sofia, October 9 (BTA) - "Patriotism in a Global World" is the
motto of the 10th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by
the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Association of
Bulgarian Media Worldwide.

The annual event will bring together journalists from Bulgaria
and abroad between October 19 and 23 in three different
locations: the Bulgarian capital Sofia and the Serbian towns of
Bosilegrad and Tsaribrod (Dimitrovgrad), which are home to
sizeable Bulgarian communities.

The news was unveiled by BTA Director General Maxim Minchev at a
press conference on Thursday.

"We are keeping up our tradition of going to places where there
are large Bulgarian communities and media and where we can
help," Minchev said.

The event will be formally opened by Bulgarian President Rosen
Plevneliev in Sofia on October 20 and will then proceed with
working sessions in Sofia, Bosilegrad and Tsaribrod until
October 22.

The 10th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media will be attended by
over 40 representatives of Bulgarian newspapers, magazines, news
websites, radio stations and television channels based in 20
countries and professionals from the most influential media in
Bulgaria.

"Bulgarian journalism abroad is alive and well. It is found even
in such countries as Brazil, Qatar and South Africa," Minchev
said.

The agenda of the meeting is centred around matters relevant to
the Bulgarian media abroad. "Those media are servicing a
powerful Bulgarian diaspora of nearly two million people. The
diaspora exerts strong influence on the economy of this country
and, as we have seen recently, it also has a direct impact on
elections here," the BTA chief noted.

Besides professional matters like the quality and credibility of
news reporting, the meeting will also discuss the role of
Bulgarian overseas media in the lives of Bulgarian expatriates,
their funding sources and their relations with public
institutions. One of the highlights will be the government's
Strategy for Bulgarians Abroad.

This tenth installment of the meeting will again offer a
cultural programme which will include an exhibition on the
history of Bosilegrad and musical and theatrical shows.

It is an established tradition for the World Meetings of
Bulgarian Media to provide a forum for owners, editors-in-chief,
CEOs and journalists of major Bulgarian media in this country
and worldwide. The Meetings are also attended by state leaders,
politicians, diplomats, figures of culture and science, and
media experts.

The nine Meetings held since 2005 in Sofia, Chicago, Rome,
Madrid, Varna and Bourgas, Vienna, Amsterdam, Bucharest, and
Plovdiv and Veliko Turnovo, have been national events of major
public impact receiving broad publicity in and outside Bulgaria.
All meetings have been organized by BTA and the Association of
Bulgarian Media Worldwide and sponsored by Bulgarian
corporations. LI/VE