The Bulgarian National Radio hosted the annual Public Broadcasters International (PBI) Conference for the first time. Heads and representatives of public radio and television stations from 24 countries participated, including UK, France, Spain, the USA, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, etc.

The motto of the annual conference was "Making the Case for Public Service Broadcasters" and from October 20 to 22 in Sofia, participants discussed fundamental issues such as freedom of speech, independence, crises and financing of public service media, as well as current topics such as attracting young audiences, negotiations with unions, Trump's America, etc.

"Public Broadcasters International continues to be a unique platform for sharing insights, addressing challenges and reaffirming our common commitment to the values ​​of the public interest," said the Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio, Milen Mitev, host of the conference.

"Today, our task is becoming increasingly difficult, as different audience groups demand increasingly different things, often contradicting each other. But we continue to try to find a place where everyone's voice can be heard," Mitev said in an interview with Radio Bulgaria.

"What continues to distinguish us from all other media on the market is that public funding gives us freedom not to follow market principles and profit, but to be guided solely by the public interest when making decisions and this makes our programs different than those of all other media. In addition, it also gives a completely different value to our production for the societies we work for. Our tasks are many and among them stand out the preservation of cultural heritage, the support of various types of cultural events and genres, which no one else would pay attention to, but it is important that they be preserved."

It is unthinkable not to have public media, says Dan Santa, Head of International Relations, Radio Romania.

Modern times require public service media to be present on many more platforms than before. If you want to reach everyone in society, you can't just invest in traditional TV or radio broadcasts. You really need to spread to more platforms, says Karen Donders, General Director, Public Mission and HR, VRT (Belgium).

Attracting younger audience is a serious problem for most public service media, including the 90-year-old Bulgarian National Radio. "One of the most impressive things about a conference like this is that we understand how colleagues from nearby countries, such as Slovenia and Croatia, or more distant ones, such as Australia and Singapore, are facing similar problems in terms of their structure and funding model, or attracting a younger audience. Some have achieved significant success, such as KBS or the BBC. But for most of us, it is difficult to show our content in times when content is flooding us from everywhere. This is due to the fact that we work in small countries with specific cultures and languages, which makes it more difficult for our content to be visible on global platforms," Milen Mitev says.

Multilingualism is also important for public media. "Both the Bulgarian National Radio and our colleagues from other countries around the world create production in many languages, so that they can tell the whole world about their country. The goal is also to be able to reach their compatriots who have emigrated. This is one of the missions of public media," adds the Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio, Milen Mitev, in his role as host of the media discussion in Sofia.

Author: Gergana Mancheva

Publication in English: Alexander Markov

Photos: BTA, pbi2025.bg