27 août 2007
Investigative Journalism vs. Bulgarian Authorities
His business is people. And “Harry,” dressed in casual shirt and wearing a big smile, says he is prepared to find a child for a shady British entrepreneur willing to pay 60,000 euros.
But the sales pitch captured on television by undercover British journalists has done more than add to Bulgaria’s reputation as a center for human trafficking. It has exposed deepening concern about the treatment of journalists by the Interior Ministry in Bulgaria, a country that joined the European Union this year.
“Harry” was later identified by the police as Hasan Ahmed Hasan, a 39-year-old Bulgarian from the Black Sea resort city of Varna. He confesses on hidden camera that he is an experienced human trafficker and that he would be able to help the Briton – who claims to have a criminal record that bars him from legal adoption – buy a child and then transport it to the United Kingdom. Hasan even showed photographs and introduced children to his would-be client.
Officials at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which aired the report in July, defended the set-up, saying their reporting shows that human trafficking and organized crime remain problems in Bulgaria despite EU pressure for a crackdown. The BBC also said it informed the police of what happened in their investigation and never gave “Harry” money.
“This is a brilliant report which exposes a very serious problem and the police in Bulgaria should investigate this properly,” says Craig Oliver, editor of Ten O'Clock News, the BBC program that aired the child-trafficking report.
The Varna police questioned Hasan and two associates about what transpired on television, then released them on the grounds there was no evidence to prosecute.
The journalists were not so lucky.
Soon after Hasan and the two others were released, Varna police commissioner Vesselin Petrov said the BBC's investigation was biased and that the journalists had entrapped Hasan by offering him money, an offense that carries a prison sentence of up to a year. Later, Varna district deputy prosecutor Stefka Jakimova confirmed that an investigation was under way.
Although no one has been charged, the Interior Ministry identified two British men, Dominic Hipkins and Paul Samrai, as BBC freelancers. A ministry press release disclosed their passport numbers, other personal information, and claimed they had both been charged with crimes in Britain.
The BBC has not confirmed the identities of the men. The BBC investigation was reported by Sangita Myska from the Ten O'Clock News.
RUN-INS WITH THE LAW
This is not the first time the Interior Ministry and the national police service that it supervises have had brushes with the BBC and other news media.
Last year, the government apologized to several Bulgarian journalists after Interior Minister Rumen Petkov falsely accused them of collaborating with the communist-era secret police in the 1970s.
In 2004, Romanian ProTV reporter George Buhnici was arrested for using a hidden camera at a Bulgarian-Romanian border crossing while he was investigating illegal cigarette trafficking between the two countries. He was found guilty of violating the law banning the use of a concealed device to record information. Last year, a Bulgarian appellate court dropped the charges.
“I do not want to recall the times I was treated as a criminal,” Buhnici said recently. “The most important thing is that I am not guilty and my case has set a precedent which is helping investigative journalists in Bulgaria.”
Also in 2004, the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt used a hidden camera to catch the chief of Bulgaria’s Olympic Committee saying he was open to negotiating a price for his vote for the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games. Rowlatt was investigating reputed corruption in the Olympic site-selection process.
The Bulgarian prosecutor's office accused the journalist of entrapment, initiation of bribe-taking, and violating the law against concealed recording. The government later dropped the case amid a huge public outcry.
Rowlatt would not comment on the incident, citing the “sensitivity” of the new accusations against the BBC over the child-trafficking report.
OTHER THREATS
Media freedom monitors cite other challenges to free expression and access to information, including investigative reporters facing threats for the work they do. In one of the more serious cases, a bomb destroyed the home of Nova TV’s Vasil Ivanov, who is known for his investigations of organized crime. Ivanov was unhurt in the April 2006 blast, but a family member narrowly escaped.
In May, dozens of media-rights groups signed a letter urging the Bulgarian parliament to scrap legislation they argue would weaken the country’s freedom of information law enacted as part of the country’s efforts to meet EU standards. Parliament did back down on some contentious amendments to the law.
Media advocates see the reponse to the BBC trafficking report as a throwback to communist times, when the government would discredit the reports of foreign journalists by claiming they were spies for Western governments.
“Who would like to investigate here after the latest events,” says Ognyan Zlatev of the Media Development Center in Sofia. “Foreign journalists should be warned now – once you disclose something which the Bulgarian Interior Ministry thinks is wrong, you will wake up the next morning with a personal file made public.”
Zlatev says the ministry’s reaction to the report is an attempt to draw away the attention from the real problem – human trafficking and organized crime.
A 2006 U.S. State Department report on human rights in Bulgaria identified trafficking as a “serious problem.” The Danish Red Cross has identified Bulgaria as a major source for the trafficking of prostitutes into Europe, and the EU pressured both Romania and Bulgaria to take tougher measures to stem illegal trafficking during negotiations for entry into the bloc.
Mihail Ekimdjiev, a lawyer at the Association for European Integration and Human Rights, says he is not surprised by the Interior Ministry's reaction to media coverage on trafficking. “Everyone knows about child trafficking in Bulgaria and it is clear that the ministry could not cope with the problem. Instead of showing respect to the journalists, who have disclosed a crime, the ministry uses its resources against them,” Ekimdjiev says.
Ekimdjiev called the release of the BBC freelancers’ personal data a “heavy violation” of the country’s data protection law. He says they could ask for compensation through the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
The British broadcaster says the baby-smuggler report followed strict editorial guidelines. Oliver says the police commissioner, Petrov, “made it sound as if we behave in a dishonest way, while in fact we have not. Our journalists put themselves in significant danger in exposing this case and it is very upsetting to have a police officer querying on what we did without properly investigating the case.”
The Interior Ministry’s press office declined to comment.
http://international.ibox.bg/comment/id_446841973
26 juin 2007
BNT has a new old director
| 26 June 2007 | 14:21 | |
Ulyana Pramova was re-elected director general of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) with full majority of nine votes at Tuesday’s sitting of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM).
The event was accompanied by a scandal as Bulgarian media received a letter on Monday saying that Ulyana Pramova was elected BNT director general (one day before the real vote). A little later two other letters were sent, saying that the voting will take place on Tuesday and the first message was a ‘check for reactions and expectations’. CEM members were flat the mistake won’t remain unpunished, but the one who made it won’t be revealed. CEM reasoned the choice on Pramova with their confidence in her first successful term of office, her good understanding that meets the modern trends for development of public televisions and with the fact that one term of office was not enough to show a director general’s full capacity.
CEM elected Ulyana Pramova BNT director general (update)
Ulyana Pramova was re-elected director general of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) with full majority of nine votes at today’s sitting of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), CEM chairwoman Maria Stefanova announced at a press conference. She termed the unanimity as one of precedence. Stefanova noted the mistake made on Monday when CEM announced Ulyana Pramova was elected BNT director general (one day before the real vote) is a technical one and will be discussed at the meeting of the council on Tuesday. Sanctions will be imposed, she noted.
CEM elected Ulyana Pramova BNT director general
The Council for Electronic Media (CEM) elected Ulyana Pramova BNT director general, a journalist of FOCUS News Agency reported. This is her second term of office in a row.
She has 12-year experience at the national television. She has worked for televisions BBT, Den, she is former correspondent of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) to Geneva and Vienna.
BNT’s director general to be elected
The Council for Electronic Media (CEM) will hold a contest for the election of a BNT director general, CEM informed. There are three applicants – Ulyana Pramova, Radostslav Glavchev and Nikolay Yotov. Voting will be secret. After the competition CEM will make a statement for the media. On June 20 CEM interviewed the three.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=s1486
24 juin 2007
MANAGER PROFILE: Tuned in
The manager: Valery Todorov
The job: Director-General, Bulgarian National Radio
In brief: Appointed for a three-year term of office to head one of Bulgaria’s three public media, Todorov – a veteran journalist who has worked as a foreign correspondent and in print, radio and television – has the job of keeping ratings high and further expanding the audience.
He emerges from the sanctity of his capacious third-floor office and greets us smilingly: “Hello, colleagues”.
The face is familiar from, although the hair a shade greyer than, the stock photograph that viewers of Bulgarian National Television (BNT) have seen for several years, usually superimposed over a scene of Moscow. Before the Council for Electronic Media voted to appoint Valery Todorov to head Bulgarian National Radio, he reported for BNT from the Russian capital, augmenting a career that has seen him calling in from several Central and Eastern European capitals, narrating transitions of various kinds.
Transition is a key word when it comes to the public media in Bulgaria. There are three: BNT, BNR and Bulgarian news agency BTA. Being appointed to head one is more than a matter of charming the members of the regulatory body during the public interviews. Not unlike being commissioned to command an 18th century naval vessel, keeping the post means having to win the confidence of the crew. In the past decade, all three public media have seen mutinies against various directors-general, and each of these mutinies resulted in their being ousted.
Todorov, always ready with a smile and whose dark eyes shine with confidence and enthusiasm for his new job, has the advantage of long experience in the media. He sees himself as a journalist among journalists (hence the style of his greeting) rather than a mandarin seeking only the austere seclusion of his office, the better to contemplate his power.
He has come a long way from the boy who sent in stories to the print media, carving a niche for himself in Bulgaria’s newspapers of the time, and continuing to do so as student and as a conscript, when he was a correspondent for a newspaper dedicated to the themes of the military and youth.
At Sofia University, he became deputy editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, then a respected newspaper vigorous and forward-looking enough to occasionally tweak the noses of the communist authorities of the time. He is proud of the generation that worked on the paper then, who in the changed Bulgaria have risen to become senior journalists, authors, heads of publishing houses, poets and in one case – Boyan Belchev – rector of the university. The names include Dimitar Tomov, today head of the university publishing house, and Dimitar Hristov, a famous poet and also head of a publishing house.
“All of us today share warm feelings about those days, when times were (he smiles ruefully) a bit difficult. Everyone acknowledges that this was a time of learning for us.”
Besides his contributions to the university newspaper, Todorov was managing a prolific output for various newspapers and magazines.
In his second year, Todorov started hosting radio programmes on BNR’s Hristo Botev programme, and when he did an internship as part of his journalism degree, he spent it at BNR’s Horizont. He moved on later to being editor-in-chief of the international programme.
Throughout this time he found it difficult to decide between working for print or for radio. Later, when he was correspondent for BNT in Moscow, he also filed for BTA.
In Moscow, so as not to lose his connection with print media, he joined with a number of colleagues in publishing a newspaper called Bulgarski Vestnik (“Bulgarian Newspaper”). It was published by a Bulgarian-Russian forum called Partniori (“Partners”).
“Fortunately, in my career, I have been able to gain experience working for different kind of media.”
Asked how he sees the role of a journalist and of BNR in today’s Bulgaria, Todorov says that BNR is the only media in the country that offers a diversity of programmes.
It has two authoritative programmes, Hristo Botev, and the other is Horizont, offering information and music. The latter has the largest network of correspondents in the country. Hristo Botev is unique and the most public broadcast-orientated outlet in the country, offering music, information and cultural and educational programmes. BNR also has Radio Bulgaria, broadcasting in 11 languages including English. BNR has five regional stations, and in one or two months, Radio Sofia will be added to this stable. Todorov’s plans for BNR include opening new regional centres in Vidin, Pleven, Bourgas and Kurdjali. He sees huge potential in expanding BNR’s regional services.
He is proud of that fact that BNR broadcasts on every possible type of frequency “this is very important when it comes to our technical development”.
BNR cannot be compared to any of the country’s commercially-orientated radio station.
“We have studios, unique for Bulgaria, to do news, radio dramas, musical performances. Many foreign producers use our Studio 1.
We have a Big Band, a symphony orchestra, a children’s choir. Besides being a media, we are a very solid cultural institution. We have an archive of music, and of the voices of many Bulgarian and foreign public figures of the past and present.”
He has an appreciation for the radio’s history. The building is being renovated, but Todorov has told his staff to preserve the look of some of the studios, as a bow to history.
“So now you see to govern this massive conglomerate is a challenge.” The smile again. “That’s why I took up this opportunity, with my experience in various fields to help me.”
Radio in Bulgaria, he says, is facing a new era – the digital era. Besides developing the programmes offered, Todorov wants to push forward its technological capabilities.
In the world of broadcasting, there are various models for public broadcasters. Many professionals, and listeners, venerate the US’s National Public Radio, for example. Does he have a model that he wants to emulate?
“When BNR was established, they took on board the experience of the world’s leading broadcasters – the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, other US, French, German and British broadcasters. Even some time back, foreign colleagues have been astonished because more than 70 per cent of our broadcasts are live. This brought us respect.”
In times past, former music programmes and educational programmes were merged, for financial reasons, into Hristo Botev. With the development of digital equipment, these elements of Hristo Botev will be expanded to return as separate programmes, he says.
“Bulgaria is a unique country when it comes to radio. Frankly, I don’t know of any other country in Europe where people listen to the radio as much as they do here.”
The flourishing number of commercial radio stations is proof of this, he says, noting that many of these stations are staffed by former BNR employees.
His mandate as director-general obliges him to keep BNR’s listener ratings high.
“Without being too self-congratulatory, our research shows us on a par with other international media.” BNR also promotes cultural and ethnic tolerance.
“As a journalist who has worked in the field of international news, visits like that of president Bush (on a table nearby, a television was narrating in low tones the closing minutes of the US president’s visit) show that journalists who work in the field of international news are dependent on domestic news. I think we should satisfy the national interests of Bulgaria in relation to other countries.
When I was elected, I emphasised the need to make the international news angle stronger. I worked for almost 12 years in Russia, and so as someone who has worked abroad, I know what it is like when you know not only what is happening in your country, but in every other one in the world. I have had the opportunity and the challenge as a journalist to witness some historical moments, I have covered the changes that happened in Eastern Europe after the end of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR, and the first democratic elections in every Eastern European country. The knowledge of my colleagues who had worked as foreign correspondents helped these changes. As journalists, we get the news first and have the opportunity to influence the news, to govern the news, in a way.”
This is why, Todorov says, he puts such value on every journalist being able to write what he or she wants.
As director-general of a public media, he wants to enable professional development of his staff.
In seeking the post, he decided that he wanted to take two steps: to make space for people to move up in the profession, and to use his experience in a more influential position.
“I hope that I won’t disappoint my colleagues.”
He wants to pass on the value he has accumulated in working as a foreign correspondent, a job that he describes as in a category of its own, combining the roles of journalist, manager, diplomat and cultural intermediary. The contacts that he built with other media around the world are useful to him in his new post, he says.
“I think that one of the problems here is that Bulgarian journalists focus too much on domestic issues. There is a bigger world, more complicated than our personal and national problems,” he smiles again.
He says that during the transition, the profession suffered. Some of the best went to other trades, and public respect for and trust in the media declined. Especially because of those colleagues who became affiliated with, and served the interests of, individual politicians and political parties, he says. “To me, this was a loss that we will never recover from,” although he adds that he hopes that this loss can be compensated for with time.
Todorov says that he is not bound to any political party.
He says that his appointment, as a professional, shows that professional experience has a value in Bulgaria.
After a long period, Bulgaria is returning to the values of professionalism, not only in journalism. “I see people with different political orientations are put in various positions, which shows that professionalism is gaining value. I don’t think that this is just a result of the tripartite governing coalition, but of a broader process. What is the use of someone weak who will serve the interests of an individual political force? Because the damage they will cause will outweigh anything positive.”
Todorov smiles: “We are returning from emotions to common sense. If I can make this comparison, it is not important whether (football teams) Levski or CSKA wins, it is important for Bulgaria to succeed”.
We turn to Russia and its media environment, where freedoms and rights have been rolled back. What is his analysis, and does he see any risk of a similar process in Bulgaria?
He does not. In Russia, the state moved to take media out of the hands of the organised crime groups that controlled them. Phase one, as Todorov puts in, succeeded. Phase two, the transition to a free media, has not. Russian president Vladimir Putin has a contradiction: he lived abroad and gained an international outlook, but ultimately what was important was his KGB background. “So, he thinks like a European, and understands what needs to be done, but does it in the way that he was trained.”
Russia, he emphasises, is a truly unique country. Working there taught him not to proceed anywhere with preconceived notions.
“The history of this country shows that every time the regime becomes liberal, it leads to a revolution. That is why in every Russian, there is a strong defensive reflex.
“Russians love a strong hand and a dead hero. Better a hero in a mausoleum than on the public square.”
The changes going on right now are facing this mentality.
“Russia is what it is and Russia will always follow its own way. When I had colleagues visiting Russia, they would say, ‘this cannot be happening’ and I would say, ‘forget what you thought before and look around’. I never say, ‘this cannot be happening,’ but I ask, ‘why is this so?’ I think that this is habit that is very useful.”
Todorov is asked to profile the BNR listener.
“We have a very good idea not only of the silhouette of our listener, but also the face. If I can say, we want to make this face look younger. We lack listeners aged between 15 and 40. Our listeners are more conservative, people of higher social status, middle-aged or older; on one side, that works well when it comes to our function, but at the same time I want BNR to be a very dynamic and provocative media, that we give enough reasons for people aged 15 to 40 to listen to BNR.
“That is why I want to make more provocative, more entertaining, more youth-orientated programmes. To have a stronger regional policy. We have a very old, still not forgotten, tradition in BNR to take our programmes outside the studio, to meet the people, to make them participants in events. If we have limited ourselves in this, it is because of our technical capabilities. But I want to emphasise live contact with people, with our audience, with the youth of Bulgaria. I think that I will be able to bring back people between these ages to listen to us again.”
He says that the audience is sophisticated and actively seeks dialogue with BNR, but is also conservative and established. “That’s why I think that without losing some of the positions that we have at the moment, we will use technical and programme development to gain new positions. Whether I will succeed I will find out after three years.”
He imagines out loud how he might justify himself to his successor, and quickly is asked whether he thinks he will serve only one term, given that the law allows him to bid for a second term in office.
“What you will see in three years will be only a fraction of what we want to do. At the moment, there is a possibility that I will only do one term. It is like the saying in the army, that any private could become a general. But he may find out that he does not like being a general. I am a journalist first and everything else comes after that.
“If in some way, my career gets in the way of my professional development, I will choose the profession. I do not want to deprive myself of the nice feeling of being a journalist, and I certainly hope that my position at the moment is just a phase.
“Compared to some other colleagues, I think, the vanity attached to being a well-known, high-profile executive is beyond me. I take this as an opportunity to prove my professional experience. The rest is just detail.” He smiles.
Notes from History: Bulgarian National Radio
In 1930, a team of Bulgarians with lots of entrepreneurial spirit, including engineers Dimitar Bunev and Dimitar Georgiev, leading Bulgarian scientist Professor Assen Zlatarov, writer Elin Pelin and others, formed the first co-operative to apply for a permit for radio broadcasting. Politicians, military officers and journalists later joined the initiative.
The founding meeting of the co-operative Rodno Radio (Homeland Radio) was held on March 30 1930. The meeting elected a board of directors, including the group above, as well as the then director of Bulgarian news agency BTA, Henri Levenson, among others. A building on Benkovski Street in Sofia was granted to Homeland Radio on May 15 1930. This is where the first transmitter and the first studio were installed. In June that same year, Homeland Radio started its first broadcasts from 6 pm to 8 pm.
The first Bulgarian radio programmes could be heard in Pernik, Kyustendil, Dupnitsa, Cherven Bryag and Lom, as well as in Shoumen when the weather was fine. In Sofia, the broadcast could be heard using crystal detectors.
Homeland Radio changed its name to Radio Sofia on June 6 1931. In early 1932, when daily three-hour broadcasts began, the radio station had 6030 subscribers.
On October 31 1931, a microphone was placed in the big hall of the Savings Bank on Moskovska Street (in today’s headquarters of DSK Bank) and the first live broadcast was a festive meeting of the co-operative Homeland Radio, in connection with the Day of Enlighteners.
On December 31 1931, King Boris III addressed a New Year message to the nation on radio live from the officers’ ball at Sofia’s Military Club. The radio was the only channel of communication for the head of state’s New Year messages, until December 31 1960, when they started to be televised as well. The station also relayed drama performances from the National Theatre and Sunday liturgies from the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
Another radio station opened in Varna in 1934, and a third in Stara Zagora in 1936.
On January 25 1935, Royal Decree No. 25 endorsed a Statutory Ordinance on Radio Broadcasting, issued by the Cabinet on January 17 1935, that declared radio broadcasting state property.
Transmission of news from Bulgaria in Esperanto began in 1936. It was followed by a short-wave external service in Italian, German, French and English on May 1 1937. That programme could reach its audience abroad thanks to a 352.9 m transmitter in Vakarel, inaugurated on October 3 1937.
A building was purpose-built for the station at 4 Dragan Tsankov Boulevard between 1938 and 1941, designed by Georgi Ovcharov and Genko Popov, and the radio moved there in 1942. The eastern facade and roof of that building were destroyed in Allied air raids in 1944, and the station was evacuated to the Novi Han village school. A new building, next door to the old one, went up in 1971.
Designed by Georgi Stoilov, it is shaped as an inverted pyramid, each of the six floors protruding above the lower one.
A second national programme went on the air in 1945. Four domestic programmes of the Bulgarian Radio were launched on January 4 1971: Horizont, Hristo Botev, Orfei (Orpheus) and Znanie. Horizont began round-the-clock transmission on September 9 1974.
Bulgarian National Radio (so designated since March 24 1992) now operates two 24-hour domestic programmes: Horizont (on FM, MW, SW and LW) and Hristo Botev (on FM and MW). Since the end of 1998, Horizont has been available via live streaming on the internet round the clock.
Radio Bulgaria (the foreign service of Radio Sofia) broadcasts an average 55 hours daily in 11 languages: Albanian, Arab, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish on MW and FM to an estimated audience of 10 million listeners in 140 countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and even Antarctica.
The radio’s Golden Sounds Library (established November 27 1957) keeps 13 000 archive units and 22 000 tapes, documenting various events since 1935, reminiscences, statements and speeches by politicians, artists, recordings of music, literary works and stage performances, and sittings of Parliament.
The station has been headed by prominent writers like Sirak Skitnik (the first director of the radio), who was also an artist, poet and critic, Konstantin Konstantinov, Orlin Vassilev, Bogomil Nonev, journalists including BTA staffers like Boyan Traikov, Stefan Tihchev, Vecheslav Tunev, and communist functionaries like Karlo Lukanov and Filip Bokov.
Former BNR staff include European Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kouneva, former environment minister Valentin Vassilev, writers and poets Valeri Petrov, Lyubomir Levchev, Kolyo Georgiev, Kalin Donkov, band leader Vili Kazasian, journalists Peter Uvaliev, Vladimir Kostov, Kevork Kevorkian, Dilyana Grozdanova, Radosvet Radev (now owner of Darik Radio), Petar Punchev (owner of Radio FM+), CNN anchor Ralitsa Vassileva and current BTA Director-General Maxim Minchev.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/manager-profile-tuned-in/id_23111/catid_23
25 mai 2007
ONLINE MEDIA IN BULGARIA WILL INEVITABLY WIN OVER PRINT MEDIA-ZAHARIEV
The victory of online media in Bulgaria over print media is inevitable, Martin Zahariev said during the third world meeting of Bulgarian media in Rome.
Zahariev led discussion related to online media development, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
Representatives of various Bulgarian media are meeting in Rome to discuss journalism developments, as well as international developments like the trial of the five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya.
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin will join the world meeting with a press conference for Bulgarian and foreign media on May 22.
Subjects of discussion at the conference include media campaigns and art in media.
Benoît XVI salue les participants du 3e Congrès Mondial des Médias Bulgares
Benoît XVI salue les participants du 3e Congrès Mondial des Médias Bulgares
A la fin de l'audience, le pape Benoît XVI s'est tourné vers les participants du Troisième Congrès Mondial des Médias Bulgares.
J'adresse, a dit Benoît XVI, une pensée aux participants de ce Congrès, qui s'est déroulé ces jours-ci à Rome. Chers amis, puisse votre service dans les communications sociales contribuer à faire en sorte que le riche patrimoine culturel et spirituel de la Bulgarie soit mieux connu et apprécié l'Europe.
En s'adressant au corps diplomatique accrédité près le Saint-Siège, en début d'année le pape Benoît XVI faisait remarquer "qu'en Europe, de nouveaux pays, la Bulgarie et la Roumanie, nations de longue tradition chrétienne, ont fait leur entrée dans l’Union européenne". (...) Je souhaite, poursuivait le pape, "que les valeurs fondamentales qui sont à la base de la dignité humaine soient pleinement protégées, en particulier la liberté religieuse dans toutes ses dimensions et les droits institutionnels des Églises".
Et au nouvel ambassadeur de Bulgarie Benoît XVI avait fait l'éloge du peuple bulgare en rappelant qu'en "raison de son histoire et de sa culture, le peuple bulgare, qui continue de faire fructifier son héritage chrétien, est invité à jouer un rôle important pour contribuer à redonner à notre continent l’élan spirituel qui lui fait trop souvent défaut". (Discours de Benoît XVI)
Rome: 3e rencontre mondiale des médias bulgares
A Rome a débuté la Troisième rencontre mondiale des médias bulgares organisée par l'agence de presse bulgare BTA et qui s'achève le 23 mai. Des éditeurs, des rédacteurs en chef, les directeurs de 80 médias bulgares et étrangers ont débattu de sujets liés à l'adhésion de la Bulgarie à l'UE et à l'officialisation de l'alphabet cyrillique au sein de l'UE. Des tables rondes ont été organisées sur les campagnes médiatiques, les portails de l'information, l'art et les médias.
L’Agence BTA réunit à Rome plus de 30 médias de 17 États du monde (Radio Bulgarie)
Les médias bulgares du monde entier se sont réunis pour leur troisième rencontre qui cette année a lieu dans la capitale de l’Italie Rome du 19 au 23 mai. Sont présents des représentants de plus de 30 médias bulgares paraissant en Europe, aux Etats-Unis et en Australie. Pour la troisième année consécutive l’organisateur de ce prestigieux forum est l’Agence Télégraphique Bulgare (BTA). Cette année le premier ministre de la Bulgarie Serguey Stanichev est le patron du forum. Incontestablement le plus grand événement dans le cadre de ce forum de 4 jours a été l’audience accordée par Sa Sainteté le pape Benoît XVI. Cette audience qui a eu lieu, aujourd'hui, le 23 mai exactement à la veille de la grande fête du 24 mai dédiée à l’éducation et à la culture bulgare ainsi qu’à l’écriture slave.
« Nous avons déjà instauré la tradition de faire nos rencontres annuelles là ou l’histoire et la spiritualité bulgare sont présentes, là ou il y a une présence considérable de la Bulgarie et des médias bulgares influents dans la langue natale. » a dit Maxim Mintchev – directeur de l’Agence BTA qui coordonne les travaux pour la troisième rencontre mondiale des médias bulgares et il a précisé que le forum qui a lieu à Rome est dans un plus large format. L’accent a été mis sur la culture bulgare et la contribution de la Bulgarie aux valeurs de l’Europe Unie. Le forum sera une occasion de parler aussi de la coopération bulgaro-italienne non seulement dans le domaine des médias, mais aussi dans le domaine de la culture, l’économie et la politique.
Le thème majeur cette fois est lié au langage et aux belles-lettres. L’alphabet bulgare pénètre désormais dans les institutions européennes, dans les symboles européens. Dans le cadre du forum a été discuté aussi la question de la chrétienté. Ce n’est pas par hasard que pour cette rencontre régulière des médias bulgares a été choisi le centre religieux de l’Europe – le Vatican. Il y aura aussi un très grand programme culturel. N’oublions pas que c’est précisément à Rome au Vatican que les frères Cyrille et Méthode, les créateurs de l’alphabet slave ont été présentés au Pape. Par exemple c’est en la basilique Santa Maria Maggiore que pour la première fois ont été sanctifiés des livres slaves et la langue bulgare a été proclamée langue liturgique. Dans cette église célèbre et deuxième par son importance à Rome il y a aussi une plaque commémorative des saints frères Cyrille et Méthode. Beaucoup de gens savent que dans la basilique San Clémente se trouve le tombeau de Saint Constantin-Cyrille le Philosophe. C’est un endroit sacré pour les Bulgares. A Rome se trouve aussi l’église bulgare Saint-Cyrille et Saint-Méthode. Nous avons le désir qu’avec les efforts conjoints des intellectuels de Bulgarie et d’Italie nous puissions marquer la présence bulgare au cœur de l’Europe chrétienne. Avec eux nous visiterons le centre musical Boris Christoff, les monuments aux Bulgares ayant combattu dans les rangs de l’armée de Garibaldi et encore beaucoup d’endroits célèbres qui témoignent de la contribution bulgare à l’histoire de l’Europe et à sa culture.
Les services diplomatiques ont recensé quelque 60 à 70 mille Bulgares en Italie et plus de 80 médias bulgares y paraissent. Selon Maxime Mintchev, c’est un argument sérieux pour le choix de la ville dans laquelle se tiendra cette rencontre de médias pendant cette année.
« Dans notre programme – a- t-il encore ajouté qu’à part des problèmes purement financiers nous voulons poser des questions liées au journalisme et au pouvoir, aux médias et au pouvoir, et soulever aussi certains problèmes sociaux. Nous avons invité de célèbres intellectuels bulgares tels que le professeur Axinia Djourova, l’académicien Anton Dontchev . Nous avons invité aussi beaucoup de nos confrères qui travaillent en Italie. Les Bulgares résidant en Italie connaissent très bien la section bulgare de la Radio du Vatican, la revue en ligne Bulgarie, le journal Abagar, etc.
Gergana Mantcheva
http://eucharistiemisericor.free.fr/index.php?page=2305073_bulgarie
07 mai 2007
Bulgarian Media Cut Broadcasting for 5 Minutes to Protest
The Bulgarian Radio and TV Association will stop all broadcasting for five minutes on Monday.
From 11.55 to 12.00 pm the whole Bulgarian air will silence as part of a protest campaign against the monopole behaviour of the Collective Management of the Producers' and Artists' Rights Society.
Meanwhile on May 7, the Bulgarian state radio and TV celebrate their official holiday.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=80324
28 mars 2007
Presse : accord de coopération vietnamo-bulgare
Le directeur général de l'Agence Vietnamienne d'Information (AVI), Nguyên Quôc Uy, et son homologue bulgare, Maxim Minchev, ont signé un accord de coopération professionnelle à l'issue d'un échange de vue hier au siège de l'AVI à Hanoi.
Selon cet accord, Vietnamiens et Bulgares échangeront des informations d'actualité en anglais par internet et quotidiennement ainsi que des visites de travail de haut niveau et de journalistes, et d'assistance professionnelle aux journalistes opérant dans le territoire l'un de l'autre.
Selon Nguyên Quôc Uy, cet accord permettra de diversifier les informations de l'AVI sur la Bulgarie, les Balkans, l'Europe ainsi que d'autres régions du monde. L'échange d'informations entre l'Agence Vietnamienne d'Information (AVI) et l'Agence Bulgare d'Information (BTA) favorisera non seulement une connaissance mutuelle entre les peuples vietnamien et bulgare, mais aussi facilitera l'investissement par les hommes d'affaires de part et d'autre, notamment dans le tourisme.
Pour Maxim Minchev, le partenariat entre l'AVI et la BTA complètera les informations en Bulgarie, en rendant possible la publication dans les mass médias bulgares d'informations sur le Vietnam et l'Asie du Sud-Est. BTA est la plus importante agence de presse de la Bulgarie, qui, avec quelque 400 personnes réparties dans 26 bureaux locaux et 13 bureaux à l'étranger, alimente les mass-média locaux environ 1.000 nouvelles et 600 photos.
Nguyên Quôc Uy et Maxim Minchev ont estimé que cet accord servirait de base juridique à l'approfondissement des relations entre les 2 agences - qui entretenaient dans le passé de belles relations -, conformément à leurs politiques extérieures dans la nouvelle conjoncture.
Minh Hà/CVN
( 27/03/07 )
27 mars 2007
MTG AB completes acquisition of Balkan Media Group Limited
Swedish-based international media group Modern Times Group MTG AB (MTG) said last week it has completed its previously announced acquisition of a 50% stake in Balkan Media Group Limited.
The investment gives MTG management control over Balkan Media Group, which operates six TV channels in Bulgaria and owns a majority stake in a Macedonian terrestrial TV broadcaster.
MTG acquired Balkan Media Group from Apace Media Plc and a minority shareholder for a total of 11.6 mln euro.
BMGL's assets comprise 100% of Diema Vision, 66% of Television MM, 100% of Apace Internet Balkans, 100% of Apace Media Bulgaria, and 66% of TV ERA.(Dnevnik)
25 mars 2007
Busek condemns Recent Attack on Media in Bulgaria – Open Letter to Parliament Speaker
Brussels — Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek today (19 March) condemned the recent storming of the editorial offices of two Bulgarian media organisations and threats made to the journalists and editors of 24 hours daily and 168 hours weekly by members of ATAKA party.
In an open letter sent to the Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament Georgi Pirinski, Mr Busek expressed his “serious concern about the events of 23 February 2007” when a mob led by ATAKA leader Volen Siderov, his deputy Pavel Shopov and Dimitar Stojanov, Bulgarian MP and Member of the European Parliament, allegedly threatened, humiliated and verbally abused journalists and editors from both newspapers.
“I seriously condemn such behaviour… The fact that some Bulgarian parliamentarians reportedly participated in this violent act against journalists is a cause for additional concern. With Bulgaria's recent entry into the European Union and its fundamental role in the processes of regional co-operation in South Eastern Europe, your country holds a specific responsibility towards future members and the region in particular,” Special Co-ordinator Busek wrote in a letter.
“I ask you to use all your institutional and political authority to ensure an appropriate response to such an incident. Such unfortunate events must be thoroughly investigated and sanctioned”, Mr Busek said.
Open Letter to Mr Pirinski, Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament
Additional information can be obtained from the South Eastern Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO):
http://www.seemo.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=66
For further information, please contact Stability Pact's Spokesperson
Mr Dragan Barbutovski at the SP Secretariat in Brussels
(Tel: +32 2 401 87 25 or press@stabilitypact.org).
_____________
PR2007/003
http://www.stabilitypact.org/pages/Press/detail.asp?y=2007&p=535
18 mars 2007
Sanoma Bliasak buys Bulgarian women's e-zine
Sanoma Bliasak Bulgaria, part of Finnsih media group SanomaWSOY, said it acquired www.rozali.com, the most popular women’s website in Bulgaria.
Rozali.com has over 17 000 unique visitors per day, said a press released posted on the website of Sanoma Magazines. As many 87% of its visitors are women aged between 18 and 40, mainly living in Sofia and urban cities.
Rozali offers information focused on women like daily horoscopes, weather forecasts, lunar calendar, beauty and fashion news, holiday tips, dream interpretations, diets and recipes. The site is updated on a daily basis.
Sanoma Bliasak Bulgaria is the largest magazine publisher in Bulgaria with a portfolio of 9 publications – Cosmopolitan, Bliasak, Story, ELLE, Maximum, My Child, The Woman’s Journal, Culinary Journal, and National Geographic.(Dnevnik)