The current situation amounts to a virtual ban on free information in the country. This campaign is unprecedented in our country s recent history. The BHC reports that so far this year, government agencies in charge of controlling the mass media have issued ten warnings to the largest remaining independent newspapers in the country. Independent legal experts have determined that most of these warnings were groundless. The government has monopolized printing presses, distribution services, electronic media, as well as a number of large nationwide, and also smaller, local newspapers.
Printing presses charge independent newspapers twice the amounts they charge the state owned press.
The state routinely blocks the creation of independent local newspapers. A series of legislative acts and regulations have been enacted which seem to aim at the destruction of the independent mass media. Newspapers must be registered as commercial entities, which requires a prohibitively high minimum capital and level of commercial activities. The legislation provides 14 different instances for extra-judicial closure of a newspaper by the state. Local authorities established an unlawful practice of mandatory approval of locations for newspaper offices.