Pristina, September 18 (BTA) - The 30th General Assembly of the Association of the Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) will be held in Bulgaria in 2022. The decision was made unanimously by the Association members on Saturday at the 29th General Assembly of ABNA-SE held in Pristina, Kosovo, and hosted by the KosovaPress News Agency.

Also in 2022, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) will assume the ABNA-SE presidency.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev proposed that the forum be mottoed "Together for Truth" and that the rules of a Balkan News Room as a shared space for news from the region be discussed at it.

BTA's idea is that the 12 ABNA-affiliated news agencies exchange one news item from each, to be relayed by the other partners. "The Balkan news agencies need to exchange information on a regular basis and help each other in this ocean of news because it is news agencies that are the source of real news," said Valchev.

The draft rules of the Balkan News Room will be prepared by the current, previous and future presidents of the organization - Kosovo, Albania and Bulgaria, together with Branka Gabriela Vojvodic, who was elected ABNA-SE Secretary General on Saturday.

Vojvodic is General Director of Croatia's HINA News Agency.

The 30th General Assembly will be held on the eve of the 125th anniversary of BTA's establishment and will commemorate the news agency's previous director general, the late Maxim Minchev. The Association has instituted a journalism award in his name dedicated to friendship among the Balkan peoples, which will be given for the first time at the forum in Bulgaria.

The 30th General Assembly will make a decision on the membership bid of Montenegro's MINA News Agency.

BTA is a founding member of ABNA-SE, which is a non-profit professional association of the news agencies of Southeast European countries. Established in 1995, ABNA-SE strives to develop cooperation among its member news agencies, and to help foster a climate of peace, friendship, security and cooperation in the Balkans and Southeast Europe. KV/LN/DD