site.btaBulgarian Journalists from 25 Countries to Participate in the 20th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, Opening on May 24 in Sofia

Journalists from a record number of countries will take part in the 20th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) on May 24 and 25 in Sofia, the Klisura Monastery "St. Cyril and Methodius," and Varshets (Northwest Bulgaria).

This year’s edition of the event is themed “Media and Knowledge.” Bulgarian journalists from 25 countries, including Bulgaria, will participate both in person and online. Among them are 46 journalists from 34 Bulgarian-language media outlets around the world. Representatives of 36 media outlets from Bulgaria have also confirmed their participation.

The meeting will be opened at BTA’s National Press Club in Sofia by the Agency’s Director General Kiril Valchev and Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (reigned as the last Tsar of the Tsardom of Bulgaria as Simeon II from 1943 until 1946, and later served as prime minister between 2001 and 2005), who addressed the participants at the First World Meeting of Bulgarian Media in Sofia on May 23, 2005 in his capacity as prime minister. 

Welcoming remarks will be delivered by Bulgaria's Vice President Iliana Iotova, Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev, Minister of Tourism and founder of the first Association of Bulgarian Media Worldwide Miroslav Borshosh, Chair of the National Assembly’s Culture and Media Committee Toshko Yordanov, Chair of the Foreign Policy Committee Yordanka Fandakova, and Svetla Kyoseva, Editor-in-Chief of the Hemus cultural magazine in Hungary.

Three discussion panels will take place during the meeting. The first panel, titled “Culture in the Media,” will be held at BTA’s National Press Club in Sofia on May 24 and will be moderated by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Editor-in-Chief of BTA’s LIK magazine.

Panelists include Prof. Amelia Licheva, Editor-in-Chief of Literary Newspaper and Dean of the Faculty of Slavic Studies at Sofia University; writer Georgi Gospodinov; Diana Glasnova, Editor-in-Chief of Rodna Rech magazine in Croatia; Dimitar Stoyanovich, host of Culture BG on Bulgarian National Television; Zhivka Milova, Editor-in-Chief of the digital outlet BG Factor in Cyprus; Marian Bachev, Minister of Culture; Milen Mitev, Director General of Bulgarian National Radio; and Svetla Kyoseva from Hemus in Hungary.

The second panel, titled “New Knowledge in the Media,” will also be held on May 24 at BTA’s “MaxiM” multimedia center in Sofia. It will be moderated by Mitko Marinov, host of This Saturday and Sunday on bTV and a PhD student at Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Participants include Alexander Varov, CEO of Net Info and head of digital advertising at United Media; Corr. Mem. Evelina Slavcheva, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Ivaylo Petrov, head of Communications and Research at MINDS International (Austria); Ivan Braykov, COO of Dir.bg; Krasimir Valchev, Minister of Education and Science; Prof. Martin Vechev, founder and Scientific Director of INSAIT and professor at ETH Zurich; and Anton Alexandrov, INSAIT researcher and lead developer of the Bulgarian chatbot BgGPT.

Additional panelists include Prof. Miglena Temelkova, Chair of the Rectors’ Council and Rector of the University of Telecommunications and Post in Sofia; Solomon Passy, Founding President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria; and Yasen Darakov, Editor-in-Chief of BG VOICE in Chicago, USA.

The third panel, titled “Bulgarians in the 21st Century World and the Media,” will take place in Varshets on May 25. The moderator will be Vasil Hristov, President of the Association of Foreign Journalists in the UK.

Discussion participants will include Veselina Valkanova, Dean of Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication; Gabriela Hadzhikostova, Editor-in-Chief of Bulgarian News in Hungary; Denitsa Sekulichka, Editor-in-Chief of Sănarodnik in Slovakia; Evgeni Veselinov, Editor-in-Chief of BulgariCA in the USA; Ivan Uzunov, co-founder of the Bulgarian Hub Eindhoven portal in the Netherlands; Marta Evtimova, Executive Producer at Nova Broadcasting Group; Svetlana Zheleva, co-founder of SANUS ET SALVUS in Austria; and Slavka Bozukova, Editor-in-Chief of Standart.

Following the third panel, a session titled “Moments for BG Institutions – A Bridge to BG Media Worldwide” is planned. Snezhana Yoveva-Dimitrova, Director of the State Cultural Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will speak on “Culture as Diplomacy and Knowledge,” and Rayna Mandzhukova, Executive Director of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, will present an analysis of Bulgarian media abroad.

The Bulgarian News Agency has been organizing World Meetings of Bulgarian Media since 2005.

The first edition took place in Sofia from May 23–25, 2005, under the theme “Bulgarian Media and Bulgaria’s European Responsibilities,” with journalists from 24 countries representing 45 Bulgarian and 53 Bulgarian-language media outlets worldwide. Past meetings were held in locations such as Chicago, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Prague, Chisinau, Skopje, Tirana. 

The 20th edition of the World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, held in Sofia, Klisura Monastery “St. Cyril and Methodius,” and Varshets, is supported by sponsors including A1, Aurubis Bulgaria, BGR Group, Geotechmin, Glavbolgarstroy Holding, Logistical Systems, the “13 Centuries of Bulgaria” National Endowment Fund, Opel (via SFA Automotive Ltd. – official Opel importer), Postbank, Puchkov Ltd., and SOF Connect – operator of Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport.