The topic of this Assembly was “Together for true news”.

General Director of ATA Valbona Zhupa was also attending the event.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov, Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov and Mayor of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov were present at the opening ceremony of the Assembly.

President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev delivered a greeting message in writing to the 30th Assembly highlighting cooperation of the Balkan agencies to convey true news to the public.

“The 30th General Assembly is also significant for the opportunity it creates for journalists from the 12 Balkan countries to exchange experiences and information directly, which is also the main purpose of the Balkan News Room, as a common space for news from the countries of Southeast Europe. This initiative is very important, because regardless of how close we are, we must be able to cooperate without any external mediation”, said Radev.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Galab Donev greeted the participants in the 30th Assembly of ABNA-SE and welcomed the partnership among the Balkan news agencies.

He expressed the trust that this meeting contributes to friendship, security and cooperation in the region.

“The media has a growing responsibility to provide the public with verified information and to respect the highest standards of journalism. I am convinced that professionalism is the key to establish a balance between fast information, its publication in an accurate way and the constant pursuit of the truth”, stated the Bulgarian prime minister.

On his part, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov said that the news agencies are doing what politics sometimes fails to do in the Balkans, which is close cooperation for the sake of the public.

“I appreciate this organization, you are very important for the audience that follows you. Politicians are nothing without you, but you are doing more than them. This cooperation should set an example for other fields as well”, he said.

In his opening remarks, BTA CEO Kiril Valchev emphasized the significance of the registration of ABNA-SE and the subsequent work of this Assembly.

He also focused on the importance of true news and the great work done by news agencies in the Balkans and throughout Europe.

“We already have cooperation agreements and exchange news every day with eight of the 12 news agencies that are part of ABNA-SE. And we are interested in expanding the same cooperation with other news agencies, and this is really very important to convey confirmed news to each other”, he said.

The current President of ABNA Skënder Krasniqi said that since the creation of ABNA-SE, there have been organized hundreds of meetings and in all of these there has been highlighted the need to register the Assembly, following the example of the Assembly of European News Agencies (EANA).

“Almost 30 years have passed since ABNA was established as an organization and so far it has organized hundreds of meetings that have made a great contribution. In all these meetings, there has been discussed on the need to have ABNA registered as an organization and to have official documents, just like other organizations. And the day has come; thanks to the will and desire of Kirill Valchev and with our support, ABNA is finally being formalized with documents”, stated Krasniqi, who also recalled last year’s meeting during the 29th Assembly that was held in Prishtina./p.s./