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Federation Council may initiate economic preferences of regional, municipal media

The editors asked the parliament to consider the lowering of the VAT rate and some other measures in their support

MOSCOW, May 29 (Itar-Tass) —— The Federation Council may initiate legislative amendments, which will give economic preferences to regional and municipal media outlets, Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko told chief editors of the regional media on Tuesday.

The editors asked the parliament to consider the lowering of the VAT rate and some other measures in their support.

Matviyenko basically supported the idea. “Naturally, regional and municipal media outlets are socially significant, which means they should enjoy benefits,” she said.

She asked the editors to formulate their proposals and send them to the Federation Council, which would form a special group for their consideration. “We will try to transform your proposals into a legislative initiative and will promote it actively,” she said.

Matviyenko also proposed to bind regional authorities to give support to the local media. “We should prevent a decline in circulation. Only 10% of regional and municipal media outlets are self-sufficient so far. If nothing is changed, we may lose that media segment at all,” she said.

“The significance of the regional and municipal media can hardly be overestimated. They are more important to people than Pravda, Kommersant and other [federal] editions, because they reflect the life of a particular region or a municipal district, the life of people,” she said. “The constructive regional media offers constructive ways of solving regional problems.”

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