site.btaBTA Director General Valchev Meets with Moldpres Director Hadei in Chisinau

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev was welcomed by the Director General of the Moldovan State News Agency Moldpres, Vitalie Hadei, at the agency’s headquarters in Chisinau.

This week, Valchev is visiting Moldova and Ukraine to mark Bessarabian Bulgarians Day on October 29. It will be celebrated with four concerts of Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov. The events are organized by BTA’s national press clubs with the support of Bulgaria’s diplomatic missions. BTA has permanent correspondent offices in Taraclia (Moldova) and Odesa (Ukraine), home to large Bulgarian communities.

At the meeting, Valchev and Hadei discussed the implementation of the cooperation agreement between BTA and Moldpres, signed on March 9, 2023. Under the agreement, the two agencies exchange their full sets of news and photo services, Moldpres providing content in English, Russian, and Romanian, and BTA in English and Bulgarian. The agreement also stipulates that each agency will share one news item daily of national significance for publication by the other, ensuring free public access on both agencies’ websites with proper source attribution.

Valchev informed his Moldovan counterpart that since the agreement’s signing, BTA has published nearly 330 Moldpres news stories translated into Bulgarian, available for free use by all Bulgarian media outlets. Hadei confirmed that Moldpres likewise regularly publishes BTA news.

The agreement also provides for journalistic exchanges and professional cooperation, including mutual visits and experience-sharing activities between the staff of the two agencies.

Noting that Moldpres currently has no correspondent in Taraclia, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Bulgarians, Valchev proposed that Moldpres use some of the reports of BTA’s permanent correspondent in the region, Irina Bogoeva.

As Secretary General of the Association of Balkan News Agencies – Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE), headquartered in Sofia, Valchev reiterated his invitation for Moldpres to join the organization. Hadei expressed interest, stating that a final decision would be taken collectively by Moldpres management.

Valchev renewed the invitation to his Moldovan counterpart to visit BTA’s headquarters in Sofia and to tour some of the agency’s 33 national press clubs across Bulgaria.

At the meeting, Valchev presented Hadei with the book 125 Years Bulgarian News Agency. The Real News: Stories On File 1989–2023, an English-language history of BTA adapted for foreign readers, written by Panayot Denev, who headed BTA from 1997 to 2002. The book features one notable Bulgarian and one foreign news story from each year since BTA’s founding. Hadei was also presented English-language editions of BTA’s LIK magazine for literature, art and culture, while Valchev received a Moldpres photo album.

Cooperation between BTA and Moldpres dates back to 2004, when the two agencies signed their first partnership agreement.

Founded in 1931 as MoldTAG, the Moldovan Department of the Radio Telegraph Agency of Ukraine, the Moldovan state news agency was reorganized in 1940 as the independent Moldovan Telegraphic News Agency (ATEM). On June 20, 1990, Moldova’s Parliament renamed it the National Information Agency Moldova-press. Since 1994, when it came under the authority of the Moldovan government, Moldpres has been the sole authorized publisher of the Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova (Monitorul oficial al Republicii Moldova), the sales of which provide much of the agency’s funding.