On behalf of a group of media executives and journalists' organizations a letter has been sent to the Chief Executive of Baku city, Hajibala Abutalibov requesting a meeting.
Representatives of the journalistic community requested a meeting in connection with the illegal mass replacing of newsstands in the stalls for the sale of products, which has severely hit the market and distribution of printed media.
The text goes as follows:
‘Replacing kiosks belonging to the GASID firm by new kiosks, which are being installed by the executive power, began in Baku in September 2011.
It was expected that the development of a network of stalls would increase the sales of printed media, improve the economic situation of the media, improve access of citizens to information, and in general, improve the reading culture of the population.
In fact we witness a quite different situation. The new kiosks sell mainly food, and practically hardly sell printed material, which occupies only a 1/10 part of the stalls, the total area of which is 12 square meters.
The installation of new stalls is going on illegally: there are no legitimate decisions about changing stalls; their replacement is based on verbal instructions, given in a rude and violent manner. The company GASID, which for decades has been selling periodicals, is going to become bankrupt, and is not able to pay the editorial offices for the selling of periodicals; as a result, newspapers and magazines have great losses.
The process of installing kiosks has no alternative, and no competitive conditions have been created among firms who distribute printed media; such a situation contributes to a monopoly and the process is closed for the journalistic community; The Media Support Fund under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Press Council, journalist organizations, and the public of the country are unaware of the process. A number of joint meetings with the participation of representatives of the presidential administration have no results.
In 2001, we witnessed the destruction of kiosks by "Gaya" and resulting grave consequences of that process for the editorial offices; we now believe that a new wave of liquidation of newsstands and the destruction of the independent press has begun.
We believe that these actions cause serious damage to public interests in Azerbaijan, and are contrary to the policy of support and development of freedom of speech in Azerbaijan, as a cornerstone of building a democratic state, declared by the President Ilham Aliyev.
In this regard, we express our serious concern about what is happening, and ask you to receive a group of editors and representatives of journalist organizations interested in the resolution of this problem.’ —0--
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