The regional weekly “Cuvantul” (“Word”) is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its foundation. On February 12, the newspaper released its 1,000th edition. The first number appeared on January 1, 1996. One of the founders of the paper, director Tudor Yashchenko has told IPN that the newspaper has good prospects and will definitely exist for a long time on, even if a large part of the readers choose the electronic variant of “Cuvantul”.

Tudor Yashchenko said that since the paper’s foundation, the editorial team has pledged to be politically unbiased. Therefore, the power has permanently tried to impose censorship, but the paper resisted. “Cuvantul” is a regional information and opinion newspaper disseminated in the districts of Rezina, Orhei, Soldanesti and Telenesti. The local news, investigations and interviews with personalities from Orhei region are most popular with the readers.

The paper’s director believes the weekly has good prospects even if the people no longer use to read so much, as in the past, while the young people prefer the electronic variant. In connection with the 20th anniversary, there will be launched the fourth volume of the serial “30 questions from home”, which contains interviews with public figures from Orhei region.

Asked about journalism today and in the past, Tudor Yashchenko said that this area is always interesting, but it depends who and how does it. Today it is much harder to remain on the market than in the 1970s-1980s. Then the people read and subscribed by order. However, now the journalists have a broader area of activity, especially when they do not obey someone’s orders, and can conduct more investigations, even before the investigation bodies.

The weekly “Cuvantul” appears on Fridays and has between 12 and 20 pages. The newspaper also has an electronic variant available at www.cuvintul.md.