Bulgarian journalist Milena Dimitrova will receive the Dr. Erhard Busek - SEEMO 2007 Award for Better Understanding in South East Europe.

The award will be presented at a special ceremony on October 19, in Vienna by Erhard Busek and Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

The award is sponsored by Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), President of the European Forum Alpbach, Chairman of the "Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe" and former Vice-Chancellor of Austria. It is given every year to a journalist, editor, media executive or a journalist trainer in South East Europe, who, through the media, has promoted better understanding among peoples in the region and worked towards solving minority-related problems, and fighting against ethnic discrimination, racism, and xenophobia, among others.

Dimitrova is commentator for Bulgarian daily newspaper Trud. She holds a PhD in journalism and is the author of several books. She teaches Press Journalism and Investigative Reporting at Sofia University and is president of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists' Investigative Journalism Section.

Dimitrova receives this award "for her journalistic work, through which Dimitrova promoted a climate of better understanding among people from different countries and cultures," the SEEMO press statement said.

Dimitrova, who has been active in fighting corruption in Bulgaria, was an investigative reporter and presenter of the TV programme "Na Chisto" (On Square), dedicated to exposing corruption. Furthermore, she wrote for the Bulgarian weekly, 168 Hours and the daily Debati.