The municipal newspaper “Capitala” was closed on August 1, under a decision of the Chisinau Municipal Council. Catalina Molodoi, who held the post of director general of the paper, has told IPN that the real causes for such decision are not clear. There were invoked the too high costs against the impact of the newspaper.
“They shouldn’t have waited for incomes from us. Under the regulations approved by the Chisinau Council, the money coming from sales was distributed as bonuses to salaries and honorariums for employees. The money couldn’t have returned to the municipal budget. The municipality founded the paper with the aim of informing the people, not of earning revenues,” stated Catalina Molodoi.
According to her, 20 persons remained out of work. Two of them are already pensioners, while several others are close to reaching retirement and will encounter difficulties in finding employment. The young people have greater chances of finding a job. Under the Labor Code, the team of the former paper are to be paid an allowance equal to three average official salaries from the municipal budget.
Catalina Molodoi also said that a new website is being designed to ensure a connection between the municipality and the residence of Chisinau. “It will be not only an informative website, but also a platform for communication between the municipality and the inhabitants. It will finance itself as the City Hall is not interested in such projects,” said the former director general of “Capitala”. A team of journalists, who are former employees of the paper, are working on the new portal.
The paper “Capitala” is the last liquidated media outlet of the media holding of Chisinau municipality created in 1998. By a decision passed by the councilors of the Communist Party and the Christian-Democratic People’s Party in 2005, there was liquidated the municipal news agency “Info-Prim”. The representatives of the same political forces refused to allow the former staff to rent the offices were they worked. Those offices have been unused for eight years and are badly in need of repair. One year later, the councilors of the same parties voted in favor of selling the radio station “Antena C” and the TV channel “Euro TV”, which had several owners since then.
