site.btaBTA Presents English Edition of Anniversary Book, Honours Former Directors General Panayot Denev, Ivo Indzhev

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) presented on Wednesday the English-language edition of 125 Years Bulgarian News Agency. The Real News: Stories On File 1989–2023 at its National Press Club in Sofia. The event also marked the anniversaries of two former BTA directors general - 80 years for Panayot Denev, who headed the Agency from 1997 to 2002, and 70 years for Ivo Indzhev, who was director general from 1990 to 1993.

The book, which follows three earlier Bulgarian-language volumes tracing BTA’s history, presents 250 news stories – one domestic and one international for each year of the Agency’s existence – and documents the evolution of Bulgarian journalism through the Agency’s archives.

Former BTA director general Panayot Denev reflected on his decades-long experience at the Agency. “Memory, as valuable as it is, can also be a burden,” Denev said, recalling key moments in BTA’s newsroom history – from coverage of the 1972 Spassky–Fischer chess match and the Vrancea earthquake, to Chernobyl and the “Antonov case”. These events, he said, shaped BTA’s understanding of its mission and integrity. Denev said he realized during his years at the Agency that “the truth could be written – and that it could be a weapon”. He also described the introduction of computers in the English Service Directorate, the creation of the Apollonia bulletin, and the drafting of the BTA Act as among his most meaningful achievements.

Lyubomir Gigov, who produced the English version of the book, described the volume as “a chronicle – or rather an almanac – of Bulgaria and the world during the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st”. Although news is often seen as “perishable”, Gigov said, this collection “tells real stories from an eyewitness’s point of view”. He emphasized that the English version was not merely a translation but an adaptation for international readers, with shorter texts and explanatory notes. He called the project “a labour of love”, pointing out that for one-third of BTA’s 125 years he had witnessed and shared in covering many of the events described. Gigov voiced special gratitude to Denev for his help in preparing the text.

Editor Nikolay Zabov added that the work was both exciting and humbling, as it reminded him that “those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it”.

Former BTA director general Ivo Indzhev noted that “the time of Ivo Indzhev was also the time of Panayot Denev, because they were a team”, recalling how, together with Denev and Stefan Kozhuharov, they had made the difficult decision to close BTA’s foreign bureaus during a period of severe financial constraint. “There are witnesses here who can attest to just how many rules we broke,” Indzhev said, adding that Denev’s later work helped lay the foundation for the Agency’s professional standards.

Incumbent BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said that Denev is “part of his personal story and of BTA’s history.” Valchev recalled that under Denev’s leadership, BTA’s Our Rules were established and remain central to the Agency’s operations today. He also noted that Denev had concluded the first agreement for news exchange with North Macedonia’s news agency. Referring to Indzhev’s time in charge, Valchev pointed out that he had discontinued the confidential news bulletins and introduced several new publications, including English-language ones such as Daily News, which is still issued today. “We build on what has already been achieved,” Valchev said. “The important thing is not thinking that everything starts with us”.

BTA Deputy Director General Evgenia Drumeva emphasized that the Agency continues to uphold these traditions by training its many young journalists in the standards of agency reporting. She praised the teamwork behind the new publication, noting that “none of us imagined how much work and how many edits would be required”, and added that the process reflected BTA’s aspiration “to make everything better and better.” Drumeva said she hopes that young colleagues will preserve their curiosity and professionalism so that “BTA can remain what it has always been”.

Prof. Rumyana Preshlenova, Director of the Institute of Balkan Studies with Centre for Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and editor of the publication, said she was honoured to join the project and to experience “the spirit of BTA” and its living memory embodied by Panayot Denev.