Moldpresa Grup SRL, which is the largest distributor of newspapers and periodicals in Moldova, expresses its concern about the fact that the sector of distribution of newspapers and other periodicals is close to disappearance in Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, the company’s director Viorel Filimon said the authorities of Chisinau municipality in October 2017 approved the regulations concerning trading in the capital city and the press distribution kiosks were put in equal conditions with stalls selling food products, drinks, kiosks, etc. Since then, the print media in Moldova has faced problems. The distribution of newspapers and other periodicals becomes more difficult each year.
Last February, the Chisinau Municipal Council modified the regulations, introducing exception conditions for outlets selling periodicals. Moldpresa Grup complied with the new conditions and the periodicals exhibited on shelves in all the kiosks occupied 60% of the shelf area. Also, the company had contracts for the distribution of at least 50% of the titles of periodicals printed in Moldova.
Viorel Filimon said that even if the activity is performed in strict compliance with the law, the district head’s offices, on the pretext of working out a new conception for the work of retail outlets, stopped extending, at least provisionally (until the new conception is adopted), the periods of validity of the schemes of the kiosks selling newspapers and periodicals.
The director said that ten press kiosks have been abusively damaged and removed in Ciocana district and all the similar kiosks are to be taken away in Râșcani district. “Such actions inevitably lead to the liquidation of the distribution of newspapers and other periodicals and prevent the people from realizing their right to have access to information,” stated Viorel Filimon.
“Chisinau cannot exist without press. This appeal is a call to the authorities. The uncertain situation in which the periodicals are now is indescribable,” said Moldpresa Grup SRL vice director Adrian Racu. “The local public authorities, by different administrative instruments, simply annihilate the distribution of the press,” said another vice director of the company Igor Blanari.
