The names of Bulgarian newspaper journalists who worked for the country’s communist-era secret services were exposed on December 9 – and the list is not yet complete.

The commission that is scrutinising the records of the former secret services unveiled the names of former and current print journalists, after checking 20 print media. Work is still underway because some publications, including dailies Standart and Klassa, had not provided all the information that the commission had requested.

According to the published list, 328 journalists had been checked, of whom 36 had been collaborators in one way or another with the former State Security.   

Top of the list is Tosho Toshev, long-time editor-in-chief of Bulgarian-language mass-circulation Trud newspaper, said to be the daily with the highest circulation in the country.

Toshev is also executive director of Trud’s publisher Media Holding, and is chairperson of the Union of Bulgarian Publishers. In 2002,  President Georgi Purvanov (himself a former researcher for State Security) conferred on Toshev Bulgaria’s highest state honour, the Stara Planina first class, for Toshev’s "outstanding contribution to Bulgarian journalism".

According to the commission, Toshev had been recruited as a collaborator in 1975 and remained one until 1990, working under the codename "Bor" (pine-tree). His job was to secure a place for State Security’s meetings, according to his file.

Two other people working for Media Holding’s newspapers were also identified as State Security collaborators.

The second-largest mass-circulation daily, 24 Chassa, also had former State Security collaborators on its staff list. These included Valeri Naidenov, formerly editor-in-chief of 24 Chassa and other papers, and a popular political commentator and analyst. He was recruited in 1983 under the name of "Sasho" with agent status.

Another well-known 24 Chassa personality is Boiko Boikov, who was on State Security’s payroll as "secret collaborator".  Other agents at 24 Chassa included commentator Pencho Kovachev and Aleksenia Dimitrova who worked under the name of "Vladimir".

One of the most interesting revelations was about Ognyan Stefanov, editor-in-chief of Frognews website, who was savagely beaten by four masked men outside a Sofia restaurant in 2008. No one has been arrested in connection with the assault, but many people believed that it was linked to reports that Frognews had posted on the basis of classified information, suggesting that special services sources had leaked information to Frognews. Like Toshev, Stefanov had organised meeting places.

The editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek-Bulgaria magazine Evgenii Stanchev was recruited as agent Kiril in 1964 and, according to his file, continued as an agent after 1989 saw the advent of the transition to democracy.  Yuri Aslanov, head of Afis polling agency, who worked as a political commentator for a number of papers, was agent Viktor for the former Bulgarian People’s Army chief-of-staff.  

Another popular political commentator for Sega daily, Svetoslav Terziev, was both an agent and a secret collaborator with State Security’s political Sixth Department. In total, seven people who have worked for Monitor daily have been exposed as agents or collaborators.

Most of the people who worked for Pogled, the newspaper published by the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, are also on the commission’s list, including Bozhidar Dimitrov, the Cabinet minister responsible for Bulgarians abroad, and prominent historian professor Georgi Bakalov, recently appointed by Dimitrov as head of the State Archive Agency.

The commission found no evidence for any affiliation to the former State Security of employees of newspapers Express, Starshel, Pozvanete, magazine Tema and Economedia, the publisher of Dnevnik daily and Kapital weekly and majority shareholder in Sofia Echo Media Ltd.