TV Anchor Dies Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Ivan Garelov Was 81

Renowned Bulgarian journalist and television presenter Ivan Garelov has died. Garelov passed away on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 3 at Pirogov Hospital, where he had been admitted to the neurosurgery unit in mid-July after suffering a traumatic brain injury, according to the Bulgarian News Agency. Further details are unclear. He was 81.

Born in the southern village of Smilets, Bulgaria on Feb. 6, 1943, Garelov’s interest in journalism sparked when he was just 14, when he was inspired to write a story about his experience with a bus driver in Pazardzhik. The story was published in a local newspaper. Garelov went on to pursue a journalism degree from Sofia University, taking his first reporting jobs while he was still a student.

Following a brief stint with BTA, where he published a travelogue from Mt. Athos in BTA’s Paraleli magazine, from 1969 until 1972, and after graduating, Garelov joined Bulgarian National TV (BNT) in 1973.During his tenure there, he interviewed prominent international figures and covered events in Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and more. He also hosted the political-informational program Panorama, which he first joined as deputy editor-in-chief and moved up the chain before until becoming host in 1979. He stayed there until 2000.

Outside of BNT, Garelov worked with, bTV, TV7, and Nova TV, the Bulgarian free-to-air television network he joined in 2000 as head of “News and Current Affairs,” per novinite.com. He also presented the bTV game show Vote of Confidence, co-founded Circle 11, which organizes the annual St. Vlas television journalism awards, and served as media adviser in the government of Ognyan Gerdzhikov.

Throughout his life, Garelov also penned numerous books, including come from Israel and Attila vs. Aphrodite in 1986, his 2013 memoir Not Far and Not Long Ago, 2016’s Panorama-focused book Here and Now, and 2022’s Unsent Letters to Margarita, among others. Novinite.com reports that Garelov had been working on another book, titled What Women Dream About, when he was involved in an accident at the resort of Sveti Vlas in July.

Paying tribute to the esteemed journalist on Facebook, President Rumen Radev remembered Garelov as “one of the most remarkable figures of Bulgarian journalism, who until the end of his days stood for the truth with integrity and enlightenment. Ivan Garelov’s professionalism was built not only on stable moral standings, rich erudition and journalistic standards, but also on a civil conscience, which he protected from impure interventions to become an example of bold journalism… Ivan Garelov leaves a bright mark in public memory, and his professionalism will continue to be an example from which not only young Bulgarian journalists, but also our society should learn.”