There are newspapers, magazines and websites catering for the needs of the Bulgarian communities in over 40 countries of Europe, North and South America. Representatives of these media outlets discussed questions of mutual interest in the Albanian capital city Tirana, at the 15^th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media organized by the Bulgarian news agency BTA.

Improving the image of Bulgaria in the world, preserving the Bulgarian language and culture and a sense of nationality – these are the elements that make up the mission of Bulgarian media whose target group are Bulgarian expats. At the meeting in Tirana prominent public figure and writer Anton Donchev laid emphasis on the importance of community culture, whereas literary critic Prof. Mihail Nedelchev stated a change in the priorities of the nation was needed:

“Perhaps Bulgaria’s new national objective is for us all – Bulgarians scattered around the world and Bulgarians living inside the country, to feel, to be together, i.e. the restoration of the Bulgarian national community in all of its possible and impossible boundaries, this is perhaps the new national objective.”

“The people who speak Bulgarian are growing fewer and fewer, and language is the decisive indicator of identity,” said actor Vladimir Penev during one of the panels at the forum in Tirana in his capacity of former minister of culture (2013). This is, in fact, one of the principal tasks facing Bulgarian media abroad, however some of them are finding it difficult to support themselves financially. That is why their representatives are insisting on more active state support. At the meeting in Tirana some of them raised some strategic issues. Radko Stoyanchov from Bosilegrad quoted official Serbian data, according to which the Bulgarian minority in Serbia had dropped down from 80,000 to 15,500:

“I have not heard from any public figure in Bulgaria what it will look like in 10-15-20 years’ time, what its population will be then,” he says. “Now Bulgaria borders on itself. But the people living there now, we are left to live in deprivation, and we do not see a future. I want to call on media and public figures here to urge the Bulgarian state to come up with a strategy of what Bulgaria will look like in 10, 15 or 50 years’ time, and make it legal, by adopting new laws if necessary, so that Bulgaria may get ahead.”

The media meeting in Tirana was attended also by Toma Bikov, MP from the ruling majority who is a member of the parliamentary Committee on Culture and the Media:

“To my mind the Bulgarian cultural area, which is not confined to Bulgaria alone, is a priority – it ought to be united, especially on important issues, such as new Bulgarian education, and the fact that some of our compatriots living in other countries could return home. Whereas the problems in every specific place where there are Bulgarians living should be regarded individually.”

BTA Director-General Maxim Minchev declared that there are invitations from Slovakia, Croatia, Sweden, Canada, Argentina, Cyprus for hosting the world meetings of Bulgarian media in the coming years.

Armela Krasniqi, Director General of the Albanian news agency ATA, talked to Radio Bulgaria about the good cooperation it has with BTA. She stated that working relations with BTA were excellent, including in the exchange of high-tech practices and information exchange:

“As Director-General of the Albanian news agency ATA I have a lot of information about Bulgaria and I hold your country in very high esteem as a serious partner who supports us on our road to the EU,” says Armela Krasniqi. “I can definitely say that the BTA is a serious and reliable source of information. We are living in times of fake news, and just one year ago ATA, jointly with 13 agencies from Southeastern Europe drafted the Tirana Declaration to counter the spread of fake news. As soon as I heard about this wonderful initiative the BTA is organizing I was immediately taken aback for never having organized such meetings ourselves. We shall certainly try to organize such meetings. I have already talked about it with a colleague from Kosova Press and we are considering a joint event of Albanian journalists, heads of news agencies and websites from all over the world. So we are sure to make use of your experience.”