I am writing you on behalf of the Board of Distripress, the Association for the Promotion of the International Circulation of the Press. We are a global organization with operational contacts to UNESCO, with members in 96 countries of the world including Russia. Our members are publishers - among them the leading publishing houses of the world -, distributors and ancillary services of the press industry. One of our main objectives is the protection of the freedom of the press with special focus on the distributional aspects of the freedom of the press.
Whilst we are recognizing and appreciating your significant efforts in improving the relations between the authorities and the media we are concerned about the possible radical increase of postal tariffs for the delivery of subscribed newspaper and magazine copies. It is obvious that the realization of this measure leads to restriction of customers' access to the press and, as a result, to infringement of the freedom of the press in sense of distribution. We agree with the leading Russian publishing houses and distributors stating that such an increase of tariffs makes the subscription inaccessible for many readers. We were strongly impressed by the coordinated action of Russian publishers protesting against the increase of the tariffs with clean front pages in one of their recent issues.
We recognize that the problem of postal tariffs cannot be easily solved; under the conditions of the free market economy business enterprises cannot be forced to operate under conditions causing losses. The problem of high postal tariffs for the delivery of press products is known in many other countries approaching differently to this question considering the national traditions, the overall economic situation, the size of the country, etc. In many countries, especially in Europe the institution of newspaper and magazine subscription is supported by the governments in different forms, in particular, by means of allocation of budgetary funds for delivery of subscribed publications.
We kindly ask you to pay your immediate attention to this matter and do everything in your power to elaborate measures helping to keep the subscription prices on a level affordable to most consumers of printed press in Russia. Your support will be highly appreciated by the whole international press community.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Emöd Managing Director