The state-run company “Moldova’s Post Office” says it sustains losses when it provides periodicals distribution services. On the other hand, the editorial staffs of periodicals say the tax rates charged by “Moldova’s Post Office” are very high. The commercial interests and state needs as regards the distribution of periodicals were discussed in a workshop held within the Mass Media Forum that was organized by the Press Council, IPN reports.
Executive director of the Association of Independent Press (API) Petru Macovei, who is the Press Council’s secretary, said that “Moldova’s Post Office” has a dominant position in the distribution of periodicals and solutions should be found to ease the burden of the editors of periodicals.
Attending the event, “Moldova’s Post Office” vice director Sergiu Batiusca said the company now supports losses when distributing periodicals to subscribers and steps should be taken so that the company’s costs are at least covered.
Director of the Rezina regional newspaper “Cuvantul” Tudor Yashchenko asked why the state needs the mass media, if it needs the papers to reach the readers and if it wants the media outlets to be powerful and many in number. “The API since 2006 has tried to solve the given problem. We discussed with “Moldova’s Post Office” and discussed the contracts and agreed to work out a strategy so that a part of the costs incurred by the company are paid from the state budget. Many states have such a strategy. But “Moldova’s Post Office” annulled everything. The distribution of papers and journals cannot be profitable when three papers are taken to one village and ten papers to another village,” said the journalist.
The editors of publications are ready to take part in the working out of a strategy for developing “Moldova’s Post Office” so that it continues to distribute periodicals. The rise in the prices of newspapers will lead to the closure of editorial offices and this will affect the education level of the population.
The participants in the workshop suggested proposing a social reading promotion program to the Government, instituting a program of indirect subsidization of paper distribution and amending the Law on the Post Office so as to modify the main kinds of activity of “Moldova’s Post Office”.
The Mass Media Forum was organized in partnership with the Association of Independent Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the Electronic Press Association and the Young Journalist’s Center. The event was financed by the Media Program of Soros Foundation Moldova and co-financed by the Council of Europe and East Europe Foundation.
