The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and Egypt’s national news agency
Middle East News Agency (MENA) launched a news exchange for the
first time. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and MENA Chair and
Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kamal signed a cooperation agreement on
Monday in Cairo, Azernews reports.
The signing ceremony at MENA’s headquarters in Cairo was also
attended by Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Egypt Deyan Katratchev, who
told MENA that Bulgaria and Egypt enjoy friendly relations and
excellent economic cooperation, and the media partnerships will add
an important contribution to this dynamic relationship.
“The two agencies have never had a cooperation agreement before
and today’s signing is the result of talks started more than three
years ago to establish cooperation by Bulgarian Ambassador to Cairo
Deyan Katratchev, a meeting with MENA’s leadership in Cairo a year
ago and discussions at international media forums,” Valchev
said.
He added that BTA also has such agreements with other countries
from the region – Algeria, Israel, Iran, Yemen, Morocco, Lebanon,
UAE and Saudi Arabia. “This provides a variety of sources of
information from the region for all Bulgarian media and,
accordingly, enables spreading of BTA news from Bulgaria in this
region,” the BTA Director General noted.
He said that the agreements allow the two agencies to complement
news from Egypt and Bulgaria respectively to the information they
purchase from global agencies without making additional
investments.
Valchev added that MENA has various news sources in the Middle
East region, while BTA develops a correspondent network in the
Balkans and Association of Balkan News Agencies – Southeast Europe
(ABNA-SEE) is headquartered in Bulgaria and he serves as its
Secretary General.
“Due to this, Bulgarian media will receive from MENA more news
not only about Egypt, but also about the Middle East, and Egyptian
media – more news not only about Bulgaria, but also about the
Balkans,” the BTA Director General noted.
MENA was established in 1955 and employs about 600 people, with
correspondents in some 20 countries.
Valchev stressed that the free exchange of information between
BTA and MENA will be particularly useful in the business sector, as
Egypt is Bulgaria’s main trading partner among the Arab countries,
as well as in the tourism and cultural sectors.
He proposed the preparation of a joint exhibition with photos of
the two agencies’ archives from the valleys of the kings in the two
countries – the Thracian rulers near Kazanlak (Central Bulgaria)
and the ancient Egyptian kings near Luxor, involving scholars from
both countries to present the interconnections in the understanding
of the world in the history of these lands.
Ambassador Katratchev organized a dinner at the Bulgarian
Embassy before the signing of the agreement. It was attended by the
heads of the two agencies, as well as Egyptologists from both
countries. The Egyptian guests received LIK magazine issues in
English dedicated to Bulgarian science in Antarctica and the
Bulgarian footprint in space on the occasion of the 45th
anniversary of the flight of cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, which made
Bulgaria the sixth country to send a man into space.
The agreement signed between BTA and MENA provides for each
party to receive the full set of news in English of the other
party, and both parties have the right to use this information in
their news services.
In addition, each of the two agencies will provide the other
with a daily briefing on a significant news story from its country,
with English text and a photo, to be published by the other agency
on its distribution channels for free reading by all visitors to
the respective sites, provided the source is explicitly
mentioned.
The contract also provides for the possibility of exchanges of
experience and professional visits by journalists and other media
professionals from both news agencies.
The contract will enter into force on the date of its signature
and will be automatically renewed annually in perpetuity.
After 2021, when the National Assembly made access to BTA’s news
open access, Bulgaria’s national news agency arranged new contracts
with global agencies from which it buys information to allow all
Bulgarian media to republish their news translated into Bulgarian
free of charge.
In addition to purchasing news products from 5 global news
agencies, following the agreement signed with MENA, BTA provides
Bulgarian media with news products free of charge from 49 other
agencies from 4 continents with which BTA has similar cooperation
agreements, including the national news agencies of all Bulgaria’s
neighboring countries and 23 European agencies.
BTA has such contracts for daily news exchange free of charge
with the national news agencies of Austria, Azerbaijan, Albania,
Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Ghana, Israel,
India, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Spain, Ivory
Coast, Yemen, Vietnam, Latvia, Liberia, Lebanon, Morocco, Moldova,
Mongolia, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Poland, North Macedonia,
Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, Serbia,
Turkiye, the Philippines, the UAE, Croatia and Montenegro, and is a
subscriber to Ukraine’s national news agency.