The Administration Board of the Association of Independent Press (API) is concerned about the way in which the talks between print media editors and the administration of the state-run enterprise Moldova’s Post Office on the contract for the distribution of periodicals ended. It calls on the authorities to intervene so as to prevent the bankruptcy of media outlets owing to the unacceptable conditions imposed by Moldova’s Post Office, IPN reports.

In a call, API says that this year again Moldova’s Post Office mimicked the talks with national and regional editorial offices, negotiating contracts only from the perspective of the own interests. More disadvantageous contract conditions than the previous ones were finally imposed on the editors. There are also particular abusive clauses that do not contribute to solving the most important problems invoked by the print media editors.

In particular, API submitted a number of proposals for modifying and supplementing the contract for the distribution of periodicals by subscription and by retailing to Moldova’s Post Office. Several of these proposals are of vital importance for the economic survival of the print media: payment in advance of the money belonging to editorial offices (at least quarterly) by Moldova’s Post Office to periodicals; exclusion of additional taxes imposed on periodicals (sorting tax, packing tax, tax for inclusion in catalogue, access to information about subscribers, etc.). Regrettably, the proposals weren’t taken into account. Therefore, API intends to go to court so that the abusive clauses of the contacts proposed for signing are excluded.

API calls on the Government and Parliament, the Ministry of Economy, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology, the Public Property Agency and the Competition Council to intervene and eliminate the abusive conditions of the contract for the distribution of newspapers and magazines. API also called upon all the print media editors not to accept the conditions imposed by Moldova’s Post Office arbitrarily and to publicly signal irregularities in the field until the interests of press editors are not taken into account.