Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) Director General Milen Mitev took part in a meeting with representatives of the Bulgarian community in Ireland, held at the Bulgarian Embassy in Dublin on Sunday. “BNR, the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian News Agency are your media,” he said.
“We are the media for all Bulgarians, so always reach out to us whenever you want something you do to be heard and seen in Bulgaria and around the world. Reach out to us when you have a problem you want to be publicized so that it can be resolved more easily. Reach out to us for good things, reach out to us for unpleasant things, reach out to us for anything you believe we can help you with,” he added.
A delegation from Bulgaria attended the Easter service on April 12, including Kiril Valchev, Milen Mitev and Milena Milotinova, the directors general of the Bulgarian News Agency, Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National Television, respectively.
“I had a strong desire for the heads of the three Bulgarian national media outlets, funded by Bulgarian society and working for all Bulgarians regardless of whether they are in Bulgaria or anywhere else in the world, to come here. Of course, I am very pleased that both Ms Milotinova and Mr Valchev immediately responded to this invitation. They are both people with an exceptionally strong and clearly expressed commitment to Bulgarians abroad, which they have demonstrated on many occasions in their professional careers,” Mitev said.
On behalf of the three of them, he pledged that they would never be indifferent to Bulgarians abroad.
The BNR Director General noted that he was pleased to be among representatives of the Bulgarian community in Ireland on this brightest Christian holiday.
“Two circumstances brought us to be here together now. First, a little over a year ago, last year on Antonovden, together with Metropolitan Anthony, we agreed to produce a podcast dedicated to Bulgarian churches in Europe. It is created by our colleagues Darina Grigorova, senior editor at Radio Bulgaria, and Aleksandra Karamihaleva, editor-in-chief of ‘Tsarkoven Vestnik’, a wonderful collaboration between the Radio and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which shows the work of the churches in Europe and their role as unifiers of Bulgarian communities abroad,” Mitev said.
According to him, the second circumstance arose at the end of last year when they learned that the quartet Svetoglas – The Mystery of Bulgarian Polyphony were almost ready with their project, in which they had compiled Old Church Slavonic liturgical chants.
“For us, it was a great pleasure and joy to support them by releasing their work as an album entitled The Ancient Hymns of Orthodoxy – Music from the Monasteries. Since the album’s release, we have had a strong desire for it to be presented to as many Bulgarians as possible, including those abroad. And when we began discussions with Metropolitan Anthony on how this could happen, he suggested that it should take place here in Dublin, at Easter,” Mitev said.
He expressed gratitude to Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Ireland Vanya Andreeva-Malakova for the hospitality and for making the visit possible, as well as to the singers from the quartet Svetoglas – who, according to Mitev, made the holiday even more beautiful.