site.btaSeptember 25, 1951: Under Government Decree, BTA Becomes Stand-Alone Institution

Seventy-four years ago, on September 25, 1951, Bulgaria's Government issued Decree No. 1183 renaming the Press Directorate Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and pooling together all Press Directorate services into a stand-alone institution, named BTA and placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers. The same decree approved "Rules of Organization on the Tasks and Structure of the Bulgarian News Agency with the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Bulgaria". 

Established as BTA in 1898, in 1912 the agency was renamed Press Directorate and became one of its divisions in 1912.

The September 1951 decree merely endorsed a decision to that effect, adopted by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) on July 12, 1951. It responded to a letter that then Press Director Encho Staykov wrote to Communist leader and Prime Minister Valko Chervenkov: "The present name of the Press Directorate does not fit its purpose. It is a news organization covering domestic and international affairs and performs the functions which TASS and the telegraph agencies in the people's democracies perform. Therefore, considering the tasks that the directorate carries out and tapping the experience of TASS, the name 'Press Directorate' needs to be changed to 'Bulgarian News Agency'."