Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Celebrates 125th Birthday

Jerusalem, 16 February, 2023 (TPS) -- A postal stamp dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) was launched Thursday by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Bulgarian Post AD CEO Filip Alexiev. The BTA Director General said that a stamp launch is one of the strongest ways to celebrate such an anniversary. A stamp have grown into a symbol of memory and a collectible item. It is the second postal stamp dedicated to BTA. The first one was launched in 1998 on the occasion of the news agency’s centenary.

Established in 1898, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is one of Europe’s and the world’s oldest news agencies. It is among just a dozen or so agencies that operated at the end of the 19th century: Agence Havas of France (est. 1835, predecessor of Agence France-Presse), the Reuters Telegram Company (1851) and the Press Association (1868) of Britain, the Associated Press of the US (1846), Denmark’s Ritzaus Bureau (1866), Norway’s Norsk Telegrambyrå (1867, now Norwegian News Agency NTB), the Hungarian Telegraphic Office (MTI) (1880), the Finnish News Agency (STT) (1887), the Romanian Agency (today’s AGERPRES) (1889), and the Swiss Telegraphic Agency (1894).

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) celebrates its 125th birthday on February 16, the date when its first news bulletin appeared in 1898. This bulletin was handwritten by BTA’s first director Oskar Iskander, Armenian, Doctor of Philosophy, publisher and editor of newspapers. The four-page bulletin contained seven dispatches datelined from Vienna, Athens and Constantinople. Other items in the first bulletin covered stock exchange price fluctuations and a forthcoming duel in Paris. Copies were delivered by hand to each of six subscribers: government institutions, Sofia’s newspapers and foreign diplomatic agencies.

In its archives, BTA keeps all its news bulletins and publications since 1898, over 100,000 subject files, and more than 9 million photographs. The oldest negatives date from the late 1930s. Digitalization of the photo library began in August 1997.

Prime Minister Galab Donev, members of Council of Ministers, government and civil sector representatives, National Ombudsman, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian National Library, universities and cultural organizations across Bulgaria, international news agencies have sent their congratulatory addresses to Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev on the occasion of BTA’s 125th anniversary.

Representatives of international news agencies’ organizations to which BTA is affiliated are expected to attend the 125th anniversary observances. Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova will meet with the foreign guests at BTA’s MaxiM Multimedia Centre on Thursday afternoon.

They will then join former and present BTA staffers and well-wishers for a concert marking the occasion at Sofia’s Bulgaria Hall. Conducted by Emil Tabakov, the Sofia Philharmonic will perform six Bulgarian music classics: Vardar Rhapsody by Pancho Vladigerov, Vesselin Stoyanov’s Bai Ganyo Grotesque Suite, Petko Staynov’s Ratchenitsa from the Thracian Dances Suite, a Firewalker’s Dance from the ballet Firewalker by Marin Goleminov, Ratchenitsa from Lyubomir Pipkov’s opera Momchil, and Academic Overture by Alexander Raychev.