BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom

The Foreign Ministry is trying to verify a report that three Bulgarian reporters are being held hostage in Afghanistan. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper 24 Chasa, Venelina Gocheva, said that the three had been detained in a village along with 27 journalists from other countries. However, the deputy editor of the newspaper Dnevnik said there was no reason to be concerned about the reporters` safety and colleagues of one of the three, a cameraman, said Bulgarian National Television had not sent him to Afghanistan and that he was on leave until 4 November. The following is the text of a report in English by Bulgarian news agency BTA web site:
Sofia, 21 October: Information has been received about the detention of three Bulgarian reporters in Afghanistan, which has been neither confirmed nor refuted.

On Sunday [21 October] afternoon the Foreign Ministry said in a fax to BTA that upon receipt of alarming information about the detention of three Bulgarian reporters in the village of Ostana in Afghanistan, an operative team has been set up to undertake the necessary actions for the reporters to be taken out of the territory of Afghanistan and transported to a safe location.
The fax says that the team is composed of representatives of all competent bodies and state institutions. Contacts have been established with the embassies of the countries connected with the incident as well as the respective institutions in those countries to coordinate joint actions for the release of the detained reporters.

However, there is different information about the state of affairs from the heads of the 24 Chasa daily, the Dnevnik newspaper and the Bulgarian National Television - the media where the three reporters, Georgi Milkov, Stoyan Vitanov and cameraman Emiliyan Dinov, sent to Afghanistan, work, a BTA reporter`s probe showed.
Editor-in-Chief of 24 Chasa Venelina Gocheva said that the three Bulgarian reporters have been detained in Afghanistan. According to her, the three are being held hostage for a third day now in a house in the Afghan village of Ostana, located to the north of Kabul. `No one is allowed to come out of the house, the house does not have electricity and water,` Gocheva said. She said that each of them was demanded 3,000 US dollars to be able to fly to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Gocheva said that the reporters wait for helicopters to take them to Dushanbe from where they can return to Bulgaria.

Together with the Bulgarians are 27 reporters of France, Russia, India, Germany and Japan, Gocheva said.

The visas of the Bulgarian reporters end on 23 October and if they do not leave the country by that time, they will be in a very difficult situation, Gocheva said. She spoke about the incident with Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi. This took place at noon on Sunday, immediately after she was read Georgi Milkov`s report. `It is unfinished, apparently the battery went down and there is no connection with him now,` Gocheva said.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Dnevnik Peter Karaboev said that there has been no confirmation that the security of the Bulgarian reporters has been jeopardized in any way. `After the information from the Foreign Ministry we checked via all international channels available to us about a group of detained reporters. There has been no such information until now,` he said.

On Sunday morning Karaboev talked for about 30 seconds with Stoyan Vitanov. `There was no sign that the situation was alarming, for them to have been kidnapped, detained or blackmailed,` Karaboev said. He said that if there had been anything alarming, Vitanov would have informed him.

The Dnevnik reporter only said that he cannot talk long as Ostana is without electricity and they cannot recharge the only handset they have with satellite connection.

Vitanov wanted to learn if his latest report sent via e-mail on Saturday evening had arrived. He did not make any hint that the situation was in any way alarming. The report he sent was about the problems of the journey of a group of reporters from Dushanbe to Central Afghanistan. The main problems of the reporters in Ostana were the lack of everyday life facilities, Karaboev said.

Colleagues of cameraman of the Bulgarian National Television Emiliyan Dinov, said that he is on a leave until 4 November and that the BNT did not send him to Afghanistan. The information was confirmed by head of the camera teams in BNT Ivan Obreykov.

`As he is on a leave and for the time being does not have a contract with BNT on the broadcast of a film from Afghanistan, BNT has nothing to do with his departure,` Obreykov said. His departure to Afghanistan is a personal decision, Obreykov said.

Head of BNT Lilyana Popova could not be reached for comment.

Currently, the Foreign Ministry is searching for additional sources of information about the situation of the Bulgarian reporters in Afghanistan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Elena Poptodorova told BTA over the phone. Meanwhile, various scenarios for reactions and actions are being discussed, she said.