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According to the API’s call, S.E. Posta Moldovei, the single distributor of the periodic press in the country, imposes drastic conditions on editorial offices in the broadcasting service contracts for 2019. These contracts contain abusive, unilateral and sometimes unfair terms. For instance, the company proposes to the editorial offices to provide free space on the periodicals’ front page for company’s advertising.
At the same time, Posta Moldovei reserves the right to modify the trade markup for the retail sales of periodicals, although this trade markup is very high, accounting for 36% of the retail price. It also reserves the right to refuse the distribution of publications if their return exceeds 50% of the quantity sent for sales during three consecutive months.
API informed the Parliament, the Government, the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the National Agency for Regulation in Electronic Communications and Information Technology and the Competition Council about this and requested the authorities to clarify this situation.
‘If you don’t like it, you are free to choose another distributor!’
The editor-in-chief of Rezina newspaper Cuvantul, Tudor Iascenco, states that Posta Moldovei for several years has shown an unfriendly attitude towards the press publishers. According to Iascenco, even the old contract contains a number of abusive terms imposed by Posta Moldovei. This happens despite the numerous meetings that press publishers and Posta Moldovei representatives had in various formats – at press forums, in parliamentary committees. ‘If you don’t like it, you are free to choose another distributor!’ This is what we are told. But there is no other distributor in Moldova. There is also Moldpres in Chisinau, which distributes the print press, but there is no such company at national level and we don’t have a choice’, Iascenco told for Media-azi.md.
API urged the editorial offices of the newspapers and magazines to act together and recommended them not to accept the arbitrary conditions imposed by Posta Moldovei, but to negotiate the contracts and to publicly signal the irregularities in this area.
