The beginnings of the tradition of professional awards, which the BNR’s public council confers on Radio Day, 25 January, go back nineteen years, to 2001. The Sirak Skitnik prize, named after the radio’s first director is awarded to persons with a contribution to the development of the BNR as a public broadcaster. 

The idea of having programmes in foreign languages that came to be known as Radio Bulgaria belongs to Bulgarian writer and painter Panayot Hristov with artistic name Sirak Skitnik. These foreign programmes went on the air in 1936 – one year after the official start of the on-air broadcasts of state radio.

Sixty-eight years later Radio Bulgaria made an enormous contribution to the development of the BNR by being the first to go online. For sixteen years our team has been publishing information about the country in 10 languages – Bulgarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Greek, Albanian and Turkish. The end product on bnr.bg/radiobulgaria is the result of the efforts of a small team of professionals. This team is the first nomination this year.

“Internet” department nominated for the Sirak Skitnik grand prix for significant contribution to the development of the BNR

The beginning. In 2004, alongside the broadcast channels, Radio Bulgaria’s website was launched. It was, in fact, the first website of the Bulgarian National Radio as such. It was judged to be unique for Bulgaria and won several prizes, one of them at the international web festival in Albena in 2004 where it was declared website of the year. In 2010, at the European Broadcasting Union meeting in Geneva, the head of the Internet Department Lyubomir Lazarov presented Radio Bulgaria’s second website, receiving the high appreciation of the assembly.

Today Radio Bulgaria operates mostly online as part of the corporate website of the Bulgarian National Radio. Its website is visited by thousands from the country and abroad, and this thanks to the efforts of a small team of professionals – its “Internet” department – who spare no effort to present the work of their coworkers in the best possible light, creating a dynamic multimedia product.

A project of the Radio Bulgaria’s Turkish language service, the only language with on-air broadcasts, was nominated for the Sirak Skitnik award in the “Radio project implemented in the past year” category.

Crossroads stories is a project by Radio Bulgaria’s Turkish language service which presents a selection of works by modern Bulgarian authors in the Turkish language in audiobook format. The Crossroads stories collection is narrated by actor Süleyman Süleymanoglu. The stories themselves are by some of the most widely read and award-winning Bulgarian writers. This is a project that contributes to the popularization of contemporary Bulgarian literature abroad and asserts the role of radio as a platform for sharing and presenting the top achievements of Bulgarian culture.

Gergana Mancheva is Radio Bulgaria’s nomination for the radio journalism award

In her work Gergana Mancheva is guided by the idea that stories from life in small towns and villages deserve just as much attention as the events taking place in politics, scientific discoveries or achievements in education. Her voice recorder is with her always, wherever she may go because she believes that journalism cannot be restricted to four walls or the 8 hours of a work day. She says that her most vivid stories were born of her meetings with people from the chitalishta (culture community clubs) in small towns and villages or fairs and festivals at local communities.

Every channel of the Bulgarian National Radio is able to nominate journalists and programmes for the Sirak Skitnik award.