Today, December 6, 2023, one week after Poșta Moldovei sent to our editorial office a contract with new prices for newspaper distribution, which have increased by 341%, we consider all possibilities for dialogue and consultations came to an end.

After countless calculations, debates, analyses of figures, and evaluations, Poșta Moldovei is sticking to its position on the increases, while the authorities are sticking to only verbal statements on compensating the expenses caused by the increase through the Independent Press Association.

Ziarul de Gardă has two options in this situation: to give up the printed edition, which is becoming unsustainable and impossible to maintain under the new conditions imposed by Poșta Moldovei, or to insist on the possibility of perfecting subscriptions at social prices for vulnerable people (88% of our subscribers are pensioners, disabled people, low-income country people). Both options seem suicidal, but we have decided to choose model two – serving the most vulnerable with information about corruption and human rights as much as possible. Every new issue of ZdG is a boost of information for people in the villages.

Today ZdG is signing the contract with Poșta Moldovei, insisting that the subscription for vulnerable people will cost 5 lei per issue, even though the post office will take 5.80 lei from this subscription. We won’t be able to do the traditional Subscriber’s Day discounts, as we have nothing to cut from, but we are encouraging Poșta Moldovei to offer people discounts on this day.

We decided to sign this contract because there are only two weeks left for the subscription and any more days of uncertainty would cause the campaign to fail.

What’s next? There are only 12 subscription days left. Every year the subscription campaign for the following year lasts 2 months, now we have only 12 days left, after which we will find out: whether people have subscribed or not, how many people have subscribed to the vulnerable subscriptions and how many people have subscribed to our newspaper at real prices for institutions and individuals. If at the end of the subscription campaign we don’t have firm information on whether the costs have been covered, we will close the print version of ZdG and the subscription money will be returned.

Now we want to believe that ZdG is not needed by Poșta Moldovei or the ZdG editorial staff, but by the citizens of Moldova, as it has been for the last 19 years, during which the number of subscribers has increased, the publication becoming the most subscribed newspaper in Moldova and the only investigative newspaper for the Romanian speaking community in general.

Anyone reading this statement (pensioner, postman, parliamentarian, minister, or student) is asked to devote a little attention to this issue and contribute with the means available:

• subscribe to ZdG
• donate subscriptions to ZdG
• tell others about the situation and encourage people to become part of this community.

Democracy is not given to anyone for free. ZdG was born out of the fight against communist corruption in 2004 and has won over tens of thousands of people who have joined us in our fight against corruption, for freedom of the press and access to information. We continue the fight – now with a subscription and information campaign for the vulnerable.

The ZdG newsroom will be back with information on the unfolding of this unprecedented crisis in the history of print media.

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