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The Government of the Republic of Moldova intends to reorganise the General Division for the Administration of Buildings belonging to the Government, which will include transferring the ‘House of Press’ complex, so that it would be managed by the aforementioned Division. Some editors and journalists estimated that after the reorganisation the rental tariff will increase again and the entire complex might be put up for privatisation.
The signatory organisations request for the Government to guarantee, in case of reorganisation, that the purpose of the ‘House of Press’ complex will be kept, namely for offices of media outlets. At the same time, we demand for the privatisation of the ‘House of Press’ not to be allowed and neither to allow an increase in the office rent tariffs for media outlets. We would like to remind you that the Parliament of Moldova committed to improve the media working conditions and the working group for media legislation improvement developed legal proposals related to providing certain facilities for media development, including lower tariffs for renting office spaces in buildings that are public property.
Since 1970s, the ‘House of Press’ had a special purpose for the print media, providing offices for the editorial teams of newspapers, magazines, ‘Moldpres’ State News Agency, Journalists’ Union, other subdivisions and structures related to journalistic work. The existence of this building has symbolised over the years the importance of the journalist profession in the Republic of Moldova. Unfortunately, the traditional purpose of a ‘house of press’ changed in the last decades and the management of this state-owned enterprise exploited so far the building for commercial purposes, thus several media outlets had to look for offices elsewhere, because of unsatisfactory conditions and exaggerated tariffs.
Media NGOs believe that it is necessary to start a public dialogue in order to find legal solutions for ‘giving back’ the ‘House of Press’ complex to the journalistic community of the Republic of Moldova, so that they would conduct specific editorial activities, raise journalists’ professional level and develop new media projects aimed at the public interest.
Association of Independent Press
Independent Journalism Center
Center for Investigative Journalism
Association of Electronic Press
Association of Investigative Reporters and Editorial Security
Association of Independent TV Journalists
Press Freedom Committee
‘Acces-Info’ Center
