Radio Bulgaria’s Spanish website published this sad news yesterday. English service also distributed an Open Letter against the decision on that issue. Radio Bulgaria BNR said Good Bye Audio Service is the sad news. German, French and Spanish service is deleting Audio service from its web.

Here is the details from BNR Web:

BNR said Good Bye Audio

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After the cessation of Radio Bulgaria short-wave broadcasts in 2012, the time has come when our programs will no longer be heard on the web. As of June 1, 2017, by decision of the Bulgarian National Radio Directive, of which Radio Bulgaria is part, the voice of this station will be extinguished. However, they will be able to continue reading our articles and to know the news about the happening in this country in our web site during a couple of months more.

For us journalists from Radio Bulgaria, programs abroad have meant much more than conventional notions about radio journalism. Since it has been our mission, our link with the world, our relationship with foreigners eager to know more about the History, culture and traditions of Bulgaria.

Thank you for having been with us for all these years.

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It’s notable that Radio Bulgaria ceased Shortwave on January 31 2012. Till then Radio Bulgaria audio Service are available on BNR website.  

BNR English Web Portal Also disclosed an Open Letter over this cessation of Audio.  To know the details please follow the link.

An Open Letter from Radio Bulgaria

Radio Bulgaria deleted Audio Programs from BNR Web. From 01 June 2017, there are no audio from for German, French and Spanish on BNR web. To protest this decision Radio Bulgaria BNR Staffs wrote Open Letter.  Spanish web of BNR also post the news of ceasing Audio from there web.

BNR Staffs wrote Open Letter

Open letter by the Radio Bulgaria staff, extracts

On May 30, Alexander Velev, Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio announced to the staff of Radio Bulgaria the management’s plans to close it down, as it is “a propaganda anachronism from the times of communism”. Mr. Velev stated that the only foreign languages Turkish, Russian and English will not scrap.   

This raises a number of questions, among which:

* If foreign language programming is an anachronism from cold war times, why is it that the public radio stations in a number of countries still have it, among them the Voice of America, the Voice of Turkey, Vatican Radio, Radio Romania International to mention but a few?

* What are the criteria applied in prioritizing certain languages in which there will continue to be foreign language content within the system of the BNR?

We believe that the decision whether to have foreign-language content produced by the Bulgarian National Radio or not, how many languages there should be and which languages is not an administrative prerogative of this or any other management of the BNR currently in office, but is a matter concerning the foreign policy of Bulgaria, its security in the long term.

What about the Future!

Bulgaria is taking over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2018. Radio Bulgaria’s foreign language production has a well-established readership abroad. It is an extremely important information conduit. In this regard, terminating the production in major European languages like French, German and Spanish is nothing if not bewildering.

We consider the decision to terminate Radio Bulgaria to be shortsighted and an end in itself. It is our opinion that the plans of the BNR management should be put to discussion and evaluation, so as to prevent administrative decisions that would be damaging to the face the country presents to the world.

From the editorial staff of Radio Bulgaria

Bulgarian National Radio

More on Radio Bulgaria : Read – No Audio from BNR