The newly established award for quality agency journalism of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) was conferred on Friday to DPA's deputy editor-in-chief and head of news Antje Homburger.

Homburger received the award for DPA's Infokanal project. The award in the name of Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Maxim Minchev, who died in 2020, was conferred by the interim head of the Bulgarian Embassy in Vienna Albena Getova. News agencies AFP (France), ANSA (Italy), DPA (Germany) and TASS (Russia) submitted applications for the EANA Maxim Minchev Award. Addressing EANA's General Assembly, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said it is an honor for Bulgaria to have EANA award after the name of a Bulgarian like Maxim Minchev. “As his friend I would have preferred this award to have taken his name many years from now, but unfortunately this is not the case. Maxim Minchev, who was also an avid traveler, said that traveling the world is an opportunity to compare. News agencies give people from all over the world the opportunity to compare. Knowing each other is not only an opportunity for profiting by using each other's good practices, but also a guarantee of peace", he added. Valchev recalled that two years ago Minchev organized the world congress of news agencies on the future of news in Sofia. "And he left us the legacy to find the best future for the news through the news agencies. We must continue the battle of true news against fake news", he said.