major
tasks are to publicize Bulgaria's achievements and successes actively to
the world; to attempt to counter anti-Bulgarian propaganda; and to
provide the various communist parties of the world with rationale in
their struggles against capitalism.

In 1972 the Sofia Press Agency was in the process of negotiating
agreements with the BTA and the Committee for Television and Radio.
Agreements had already been established with book publishers,
photographic artists, and the film industry. In early 1972 over 500
people--the majority of whom were editors and translators--were working
for the Sofia Press Agency, and contracts had been signed with
approximately 120 foreign countries. Nine magazines, translated into
eleven languages, had been published each year in 2.5 million copies. A
dual language newspaper has been published each year in 500,000 copies,
and 400 books had appeared in approximately 4 million copies. Some
15,000 articles had been written, 30,000 photographs taken, and dozens
of television motion pictures and documentaries had been filmed.

News Agency

The BTA was founded originally in 1898 in Sofia. It is the official news
agency of the country and the sole source of both foreign and domestic
news. It receives most of its foreign items from the Soviet Union news
agency but also maintains exchange agreements with Reuters, Associated
Press, and the Associated Foreign Press as well as a host of lesser
known foreign news agencies, although it tends to be more discriminating
in terms of the items selected from these sources.

In the 1960s the BTA had twenty-three correspondents posted throughout
the nation, as well as foreign correspondents in Moscow, Peking, East
Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Tirana, Belgrade, Ankara, Paris, Bonn, New
York, Vienna, Cairo, and New Delhi. Correspondents are sent on special
assignments to investigate news that is considered to be of interest to
Bulgaria. Domestic news is reproduced in Russian, English, French,
German, and Spanish, and international news is reproduced in Russian,
English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. In an average day the BTA
receives approximately 800 foreign newspapers, magazines, and bulletins
and itself produces over 125,000 words.

THEMES OF THE MEDIA

The predominant theme of the media remains the expression of friendship
with the Soviet Union. In 1971 a leading member of the party's Central
Committee informed members of the media that one of