Eliminating of the network of newsstands in Azerbaijan continues

On Friday unknown people attempted to eliminate in Baku the next newsstand of the state-owned GASID distributor of publications at the intersection of Hazi Aslanov and Samad Vurgun streets.

After the telephone call of the lawyer Fuad Agayev, who will protect the rights of Kamran Huseynov, the seller of the newsstand in court, the Director of Turan News Agency, Mehman Aliyev, and the operator of the agency arrived to the scene. Five unknown people immediately retreated. One of them, whom Mehman Aliyev found in the nearby store selling phones, refused to name himself, saying only that he represented the state, but he did not say which state.

Then that man phoned another unknown individual, who  confusingly said on the phone  that they were acting on behalf of the GASID, or on behalf of the Commerce Department of the Executive Power of Baku; and they categorically refused to name themselves.

"GASID has been eliminated, and therefore its kiosks are being eliminated, and kiosks of the Commerce Department are installed instead of them," said the stranger.

The head of Sales Department  of GASID, Akif Gurbanov, answering a question from  Aliyev on  the  telephone, said that they try to force out  GASID  from  the market, but the company  has not been closed and continues to work, suffering heavy losses. "Over the past month and a half, 41 kiosks in the center of the city were removed."

Gurbanov said that there are no formal decisions, and all instructions are given orally. Employees who work in this system are fired, and new people not having experience of work with periodicals are invited to work in the new kiosks.

Observations show that the new kiosks, which look more like mobile shops, mostly sell anything, but not newspapers. They have turned into a major retail chain, which has nothing to do with the market of periodicals. As a result, the access of readers to a very limited print media has been restricted, and newspapers lose circulation.

Attempts to raise this issue by the editors of leading publications were futile. The presidential administration did not keep its promise to resolve the issue, and the process of eliminating stalls continues. There have left les than two hundred of thousands kiosks.

Today, the heads of a number of media and journalistic organizations have decided to defend the kiosk N57 at the intersection of Samad Vurgun and Hazi Aslanov streets, also through court, and to begin the process of protecting the kiosks and press distribution network in Azerbaijan.–0-