Pandemic Threatens Moldova Print Media’s Survival, Editors Warn

Print media outlets in Moldova face likely collapse if the current coronavirus pandemic continues, the Independent Press Association, API, which gathers most big print publications in Moldova, has warned.

"Moldova Post, the largest national operator of postal services, has announced the news of the 'indefinite termination' of the distribution of newspapers and magazines," API noted in a press release on Tuesday.

The reason invoked by the postal service is the special work regime imposed by the Moldovan parliament on March 17 in relation to the pandemic - and the need to protect workers during the period of the emergency.

"This situation will severely hit the print press if it continues for more than a few weeks. We have had a discussion with several press editors who said the situation is critical; it wasn't bright before now either," the director of API, Petru Macovei, told BIRN.

"The cessation of the process of publishing periodicals will affect the degree of information of a large part of the population, and will cause the total or partial suspension of the economic activity of newsrooms and of some companies in the printing industry," API said in its press release.

Experts say newsrooms will be unable to edit newspapers and magazines because distributors cannot deliver them to their readers and subscribers.

Macovei says small local newsrooms will have to adjust fast and even fire some journalists and focus on the online sector. "If this situation continues for a long time, it will mean closing newsrooms for good. Some will hardly recover," he added.

According to API's estimates, there are about 130 print publications in Moldova, mostly weeklies, published in both Romanian and Russian. People in the rural areas of...

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