site.bta100th Birth Anniversary of Veteran BTA Journalist Alfred Krispin

Thursday marks the 100th birth anniversary of veteran BTA journalist, translator and public figure Alfred Krispin (1926-2006).

As part of the news agency for 36 years, he served as a correspondent in London for six years and headed the External Service in the course of 13 years. While reporting from the UK, he opposed the uncritical use of the Communist daily Morning Star "because it is a proponent of narrow partisan interests that are not consistent with Bulgaria's national and State interests." In the early 1980, he was sent on a several months' assignment to New York as a special correspondent for the UN events.

As Editor-in-Chief of BTA's External Service, Krispin required work up to the rigorous world news agency standards with an emphasis on the news and a meaningful background. He personally translated the Associated Press Stylebook, which was used as an essential tool at the department. He treated his subordinates as friends and colleagues. Predictably, their output, produced with pleasure, was readily cited by the global wire services' correspondents. 

Following is an English translation of the news item by which BTA's Home News Desk bulletin announced Krispin's passing on June 29, 2006:

"Well-Known and Respected Bulgarian Journalist, Translator and Public Figure Alfred David Krispin Dies

Sofia, June 29 (BTA) - Well-known and respected Bulgarian journalist, translator and public figure Alfred David Krispin has passed away, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists told BTA.

Alfred Krispin was born in Sofia on February 26, 1926. He graduated in law and journalism. He joined BTA on December 1, 1950 as a translator-editor. Until 1953, he was editor and deputy editor in chief at the International News Desk Department [heading the US Desk in the early 1950s]. He began a stint as a resident BTA correspondent in London on September 1, 1965 [until October 1, 1971]. On October 1, 1971, he was designated chief observer at the International News Desk Department [until April 7, 1973]. Krispin was editor in chief of the BTA External News Desk Department from April 7, 1973 until his retirement in 1986.

He wrote several books [including The New Old England (1973) and The Sterling Case (1985)] and a number of articles and other publications. He trained a number of young journalists and helped the professional advancement of the BTA publications. He was a long-time contributor to the Bulgarian press.

Alfred Krispin was President of the Carmel Bulgarian Jewish Masonic Lodge (an affiliate of B'nai B'rith, revived in 1992) and a member of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and of the Pugwash Movement (Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs).

In December 2002, he headed an informal working group for year-long monitoring and recording of anti-Semitism manifestations in Bulgaria. He also chaired a board of analysis prompted by a much publicized Bulgarian translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf, published in 2001.

Krispin translated into Bulgarian Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust (2002), [Alvin Toffler's Future Shock], and compiled Anti-Semitism in Bulgaria (2004) and other books.

BTA Reference Department/VN/SS/Dimitrina Vetova/RUM"