Ralitsa Kovacheva is a doctor of journalism and a lecturer in international journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”. She has published three books and numerous scientific articles. Her research interests are in the European Union, international politics and disinformation. Ralitsa Kovacheva has many years of journalistic experience. She has worked as a journalist at BNT, FM Plus radio, published in various online media and is one of the founders of RE:TV and BiT.

Contact: editors@factcheck.bg

Georgi Marchev is a founder, video producer and narrator at Story Films. He is experienced in creating video stories on the Internet, and the national tv channels bTV and Nova. He started from the newspaper and online news journalism - Dnevnik newspaper, Dnevnik.bg website and Capital Daily newspaper. He graduated in journalism and production at the University of National and World Economy. Part of the author's team of the text entitled "From the Istanbul Convention to the fraud k0vid-19", awarded first place in the hackathon "Health on target" of the Association of European Journalists - Bulgaria.

Mina Kirkova received her education at the Classical High School (National High School for Ancient Languages ​​and Cultures) in Sofia and the University of Glasgow in Great Britain with a degree in Cinema and Television. Her professional career began at BiT TV, where she worked as an international editor. After the channel ceased to exist, she began working in the field of entertainment television as an editor in many of the most successful reality formats in the country. In December 2020, in a team with Georgi Marchev and Simona Kostadinova, she investigated the fake news about the PCR tests for coronavirus. The investigation won a prize from the Health on Target hackathon, organized by AEJ.

Elena Furnadzhieva is a journalist with over 25 years of professional experience. She graduated in Slavic Philology, majoring in Czech Philology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski ”. Her professional career began at Darik Radio when the radio was found. She was working as a judicial and political reporter and was among the journalists covering the protests against Videnov's cabinet in the winter of 1996-1997. In 2001 she joined the BTV team as a producer, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the News and Current Affairs Department. Elena became one of the founders of BiT's Bulgarian office in 2015, where she worked as Chief Executive Producer. She currently lives with her family in Florence, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, Czech, Slovak and Russian.

Mirela Petkova is a freelance researcher and journalist. She is excited about problems that affect the Balkans, Eastern Europe and China, as well as debunking misinformation and intelligence through open sources. Since the autumn of 2020 she has been working for the British media New Statesman, where she collects, analyzes and visualizes databases related to the energy transition and climate change. Her main goal is to help journalists with verified, reliable and timely information.

Vanessa Nikolova graduated in journalism from the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". She has worked as an editor and translator in print and online media. She is interested in topics related to the Western Balkans and the Far East, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. She is passionate about astronomy and astrophysics, and one of her goals as a journalist is to make science more accessible and interesting for the average reader. Works with English, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Serbian and Korean languages.

Slavena Zaharieva is a freelance journalist with a focus on healthcare and disinformation. One of the winners of the Factcheck.bg competition exposing disinformation campaigns "Rights of Aim" in 2021. She graduated in journalism and European integration at the University of St. Kliment Ohridski, and has experience in the field of pharmaceutical logistics. Author of journalistic texts and short stories.

Vassilena Dotkova is a graduate of Sofia University with a degree in English. She has worked in print and online media. As editor at the printed daily Dnevnik and the news website dnevnik.bg she was part of a team covering environmental issues and the green transition. Her other interests include diverse areas such as literature, sociolinguistics, social sciences and international relations. She has translated fiction and philosophical works from English into Bulgarian. She spent years of her life in the UK and Scandinavia and also has a working knowledge of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.

Katerina Vasileva is a student in political science at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". Her path in journalism started at the age of 18, when she became an author at sCOOL Media. Afterwards she joined the team of the positive media Uspelite.bg, where she developed her interest in solution based journalism. Katerina is mainly engaged in social and political topics, education and media literacy, ecology, art and women's rights. She is the creator of Polifemme Podcast which tells the stories of significant women in the world of politics. In 2021 she was awarded the "Young Author" prize from the journalistic competition Web Report for her article "Sexual Education: the Cure against the Pandemic of Domestic Violence".

Kristiyan Yulzari is an 11th-grade high school student from Rousse. His path in journalism began from the national platform for student journalism sCOOL Media, where he works in various formats - writing, video and podcast. The topics he is most passionate about are social issues and youth policy. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Club Z, OFFNews, Teen Station, others. Kristiyan Yulzari joined the team of Factcheck.bg in November 2021. He holds the Web Report 2020 award and "Valia Krushkina - journalism for people" for his investigation about corruption in the Ministry of youth in sport regarding the funds for youth activities.

Georgi Marchev is a founder, video producer and narrator at Story Films. He is experienced in creating video stories on the Internet, and the national tv channels bTV and Nova. He started from the newspaper and online news journalism - Dnevnik newspaper, Dnevnik.bg website and Capital Daily newspaper. He graduated in journalism and production at the University of National and World Economy. Part of the author's team of the text entitled "From the Istanbul Convention to the fraud k0vid-19", awarded first place in the hackathon "Health on target" of the Association of European Journalists - Bulgaria.

Mina Kirkova received her education at the Classical High School (National High School for Ancient Languages ​​and Cultures) in Sofia and the University of Glasgow in Great Britain with a degree in Cinema and Television. Her professional career began at BiT TV, where she worked as an international editor. After the channel ceased to exist, she began working in the field of entertainment television as an editor in many of the most successful reality formats in the country. In December 2020, in a team with Georgi Marchev and Simona Kostadinova, she investigated the fake news about the PCR tests for coronavirus. The investigation won a prize from the Health on Target hackathon, organized by AEJ.

Bozhidar Angelov is a PhD student in EU media policy and law at the Department of European Studies at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. His path in journalism began as an intern at BiT TV and the regional center of BNT (Bulgarian National Television) in Blagoevgrad. He was an editor in the media websites News.bg and Money.bg, and later he became a tv news anchor of the Money.bg show on Bulgaria ON AIR TV. The topic of the fight against misinformation and his interest in verifying the facts started from the US presidential election in 2016. A year later he defended his master's thesis on "The role of the media in limiting fake news (fact-checking)" in the master's program "E-Europe“.

Yordan Barzakov graduated from the German Language High School in Blagoevgrad, after which he became a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski". His professional career began in the TV show "Masters of the Air" ("Gospodari na efira"), went through other television projects and several print media. Since 2019 he has been working in Club Z. He covers mainly finance, economics, energy and transport. He also writes on topics related to the Middle East and the neighboring countries.

Nikola Tulechki has been a data expert at Ontotext since 2017 and one of the founders of the Data for Good Association. He holds a PhD in Toulouse (France) on the applications of automatic language processing of aviation incident reports. At Ontotext, Nikola works on a variety of research projects, where he mainly deals with semantic modeling and data integration. More generally, he is interested in related open data, both from a structural point of view and from the perspective of their social significance. Nikola also teaches Semantic Technologies at Sofia University and the New Bulgarian University.