Employees of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) will stage a protest rally this Thursday, May 15, at the intersection in front of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", BTA reported. At the protest, they will demand budget funding to ensure a salary increase. The protest action was announced today at a press conference at the National Press Club of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency by the organizers of the rally- the trade union organizations from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) and the Confederation of Labor "Podkrepa". The protest will be held under the slogan "Work in the media has value" and will begin at 12:00 p.m.

The workers' demand is for an increase of at least 15% in the subsidies for the three media, as follows: BGN 5 million for BNR, BGN 6 million for BNT and BGN 3 million for BTA. The total requested amount is 14 million BGN (EUR 7 million), said Todor Kapitanov from CITUB.

The organizers of the protest are also calling for a meeting with the Minister of Finance to discuss options for implementing the requested funding increase.