site.btaNickolay Mladenov: International Cooperation Mechanisms Disrupted

The world is headed towards uneasy times, in which addressing problems depends on international cooperation, whose mechanisms, however, have been disrupted, said former Bulgarian minister of foreign affairs and UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov, who is currently director general of the Anwar Garhash Diplomatic Academy (United Arab Emirates).

Mladenov took part in the Man Media and the Salvation of Man panel, held within the 17th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Bulgarian diplomat joined the discussion online.

“The world is fragmented and will further fragment into groups, states, interests, interpretations of history and the problems they have. But we will also fragment more and more into separate groups based on interests, [into] groups based on the social media that we read and will be reading and hearing only what we want to read and hear,” Mladenov said.

According to him, the role of Bulgarian media abroad is to uphold the freedom of speech and the idea that man can have an opinion different than the one imposed on other media and social networks.

Mladenov said that there must be enhanced cooperation between the Bulgarian media abroad on those in the country. He noted, however, that in recent years, many media outlets have taken a preference to copying information rather than reasoning.