Subscription to newspapers and magazines for the next six months is underway in Turkmenistan. As usual, executives of organizations and agencies retain a certain amount from staff salaries which is spent on subscriptions to national periodicals.
In the capital executives urge their employees to subscribe to specialized newspapers and journals. For instance, the military are obliged to subscribe to the newspaper “Esger”, teachers – to “Mugalymlar gazeti”, healthcare practitioners – to “Saglyk” and so on.
In the provinces the situation is slightly different. Ashgabat issues “an execution plan”, i.e. a certain amount of money which should be spent on subscriptions for a given velayat.
In Balkan velayat, for instance, in order to simplify their task executives simply retain 10% from the paycheck of each employee. For healthcare practitioners the amount ranges from 40 ($11) to 200 manats ($62). Needless to say, it hits hard in the pocket of the family budget, especially if both spouses are employed. For this amount, people are involuntarily subscribed not only to specialized periodicals, but also to “some other editions for the remaining amount”.
Moreover, we are receiving reports from involuntary subscribers that it is impossible to subscribe to precisely 10% of the salary. Therefore the executives responsible for subscriptions understate the total amount and put the money left from each employee into their own pockets.
It is noted that subscription fees for some periodicals have increased compared to the first six months of 2015. For instance, the newspaper “Neitralny Turkmenistan”, which previously cost 18.40 manats, is now sold at 21.60 whereas the magazine “Bilim” increased from 24 to 33 manats. The fee for the newspaper “Vatan” increased by 10 tenge – from 7.80 to 7.90 manats. Local newspapers, for instance “Balkan”, also saw a 10 tenge increase in subscription fees.
Informational content is not a distinct feature of the Turkmen print media. There is more propaganda and praise of accomplishments of the power and prosperity epoch. Therefore, voluntarily, without pressure by the authorities, residents would be unlikely to subscribe to so many newspapers and magazines.
