Case of the kiosk N 57 in the center of media attention

On Monday a newsstand N 57 again became the focus of media attention, which in the past three days, gave much attention to this point of retail sale of newspapers.

At a press conference in media center, a seller of the kiosk, Kamran Huseynov, told about his misadventures. "I have been bullied for several weeks by some persons who represented themselves as employees of the Trade Department of the Executive Power of Baku. They demand me to leave the kiosk, and want to install the new one. 

However, they do not offer job to Huseynov in the new kiosk, despite he has three children and needs a job. 

State-owned company GASID, for which Huseynov works, does not interfere, and silently is watching the destruction of its own network of kiosks in the city center. This company has lost almost half of kiosks and now at least two hundred points are in a critical situation.

According to Turan agency, six months ago, a Mayor of Baku, Hajibala Abutalibov, verbally warned the Director GASID that the news-stands in the center of the city will be replaced by new ones, which remind Paris’ newsstands. Over the past a month and a half, more than 40 kiosks have been dismantled in the city center. No formal decision on replacement of the kiosks has been presented. 

The editor of “Azadlig” newspaper Rahim Hajibeyli said Turan that the new kiosks sell everything but the newspaper: "Retail sales of our and other newspapers have declined sharply, and we have a loss."

Over the last six months GASID owed "Azadlig" 25,000 manat for sold newspapers. The same is true in other publications. The company admitted that a problem exists, and is associated with the process of replacing the kiosks.

The owners of the new kiosks are not interested in selling newspapers, and sell food, drinks and even alcoholic. According to unofficial data, each stall-keeper pays two or three thousand manat, as a percentage. Therefore, it is not profitable to sell periodicals, which does not make a large income.

In addition, stall-keepers are instructed to sell less independent newspapers which depend on retail sales, because they do not have the revenue from advertising.

Researches show that Azerbaijan ranks one of the last in terms of stalls per capita. For example, 

In European countries there is one stall for two thousand people, and in Azerbaijan, there is one stall foe 12 thousand people. There are many places where this figure is even worse. For example, in the suburban village of Buzovna, there is only one stall for 50,000 people.

At a press conference it was decided to launch a campaign to protect the market of retail sale of newspapers. For this purpose, a group of media representatives and journalists' organizations intend to hold meetings with the leadership of GASID, Baku Mayor Office, and the administration of the country's president.

Lawyer Fuad Agayev expressed readiness to stand trial in the case of kiosk N57, and will conduct their investigations.—0—