State papers face financial and personnel crisis

The district councilors will not allow liquidating or privatizing the local state newspapers. Such an opinion was expressed by most of the local officials who were questioned within a study conducted by the Association of Independent Press (API). “During two years from February 12, 2010, when the law on denationalization was adopted, the local newspapers financed from public money will not be transformed into official gazettes and will not be privatized. They will be liquidated as they will be outside the legal framework,” API head Petru Macovei said in a news conference held to launch the study. In order to identify the most serious problems faced by the local press, the API questioned 17 managers of state newspapers. They complained that they experience shortages of professional journalists as the graduates of journalism faculties avoid them. The salaries are low and the advertising volume is small. The high prices of publishing and distribution services impoverish the state newspapers. At the same time, the papers are not in demand as the people are not interested in reading. A large part of the editors of the 22 local state papers are in favor of transforming the publications into official gazettes or their privatization so as to prevent their liquidation. The study “Development of the Local Press in Moldova in 1990-2010” was carried out with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) within the Moldova Civil Society Strengthening Program, implemented by the Academy for Educational Development.