“The great thing about a large media organization - even though ours isn't the biggest, there are about 1,000 people in the newsroom - is that I constantly change departments. So it feels like you’re working in many different places, even though it’s actually the same one. I started in one program, in one position, then moved to another, and later began traveling abroad as a producer,” says Monika Evstatieva in an interview for Radio Bulgaria, revealing an interesting aspect of working in U.S. media outlets:

“Producers and correspondents with us often do the same things because we prepare everything. We’re the ones who decide where to go, who to talk to, and organize everything. Then the host comes and records the interviews. I love being a producer because I have a lot of freedom in what I do. And we’re a bit irreplaceable - nothing gets done without us, so I’m confident I’ll always have work,” the Bulgarian journalist says with a smile.

In NPR’s investigations department, preparing, conducting, and publishing a story can take months or even years. The effort, however, is worth it. Monika usually works on 3-4 stories at a time:

“The last three stories  I worked on were incredibly different. One was about ISIS fighters currently held in camps in northern Syria, and the international effort to have their home countries repatriate them. If they escape, there’s a risk the terrorist organization could be partly reformed. We also investigated what happens to the children born there, especially those with parents from different countries - which is most of them. Another story I am working on is about Afghanistan - what happens when your allies of 20 years suddenly abandon you. A program recently ended that helped Afghans resettled in the U.S. avoid deportation. If they return to Afghanistan, the Taliban could capture and kill them. The third topic involves judges in the U.S., who play a key role in democracy but often mistreat younger staff members, acting like 'kings in their own kingdoms' with no one to hold them accountable.”

“My work doesn’t end with writing the report,” Monika continues. “Nine different people review it. First, the editors, then the ethics and standards team, then the legal team. So many people are involved that everything is thoroughly verified. For the person consuming the news, it’s important to get it from respected media outlets that check facts and tell the truth.”

Fighting fake news - each of which often contains a grain of truth - is another challenge Monika faces on a daily basis. But there’s a method that helps sort through the information: viewing each such news item as a puzzle:

“When you stack puzzle pieces on top of each other, you’re building a tower and starting an investigation. You take each piece and question it - ‘this is wrong because it’s out of context,’ or ‘that’s misleading for the same reason’ - and eventually you’re left with the one piece that’s actually the correct one, and everything else has been built around it.”

In the fast-paced professional world she’s inhabited for nearly two decades, Monika rarely meets fellow Bulgarians - aside from two people, she knows almost no Bulgarian colleagues in the U.S.

“I really hope there will be more Bulgarians in the future. Working as a journalist abroad in a foreign language is very hard unless you start very young. Once you're an established journalist in Bulgaria, it's much harder to break through abroad.”

Today, Monika Evstatieva is happy with her career path:

“No day in journalism is like the one before, and it’s never boring - few people can say that about their job.”