To Mr. Aureliu CIOCOI, Interim Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Mrs. Liliana IACONI, Secretary General of the Government PUBLIC CALL Non-governmental organizations in the field of mass media express their concern regarding the intention of the State Chancellery to increase the rental rates by the media in mass of spaces in publicly owned buildings and calls for urgent intervention to prevent this from happening. The General Directorate for the Administration of Buildings of the Government of the Republic of Moldova sent a letter to the editorial offices of the media institutions that rent spaces in the Press House building (Chisinau municipality, Pușkin str. 22), announcing the intention to increase the coefficient for calculating the rental rates of spaces in the Press House, starting on May 1, 2021. According to the Directorate, this would be determined by the repeal of State Chancellery Order no. 406-A of September 9, 2019 regarding the determination of the amount of rent for public property within the lease contracts concluded with mass media bodies, and upon the recommendation of the State Chancellery. Thus, the K4 coefficient that is applied to the calculation of the rental rate will be increased from 1.0 to 1.5. The General Directorate for the Administration of Government Buildings invites the editors to the meeting of the negotiation committee and warns that "non-appearance at the meeting will be considered as acceptance of the new proposed price". The signatory organizations express their concern about this intention of the State Chancellery and appeal to the interim Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Aureliu Ciocoi, to intervene in order not to admit the increase in tariffs. A possible increase would further worsen the financial situation of media institutions, greatly affected by the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We remind you that the Government of the Republic of Moldova did not approve any economic support measures for the media sector in the conditions of the pandemic crisis, as the governments of other European countries did, as well as of some countries that are not EU members. Instead of support measures during this difficult period, the State Chancellery is proposing most of the rental rates for editorial offices in public buildings. We believe that such an approach is unacceptable under the current conditions and we request the State Chancellery to abandon this intention. Independent Press Association Center for Independent Journalism Access-info Center Electronic Press Association Committee for Freedom of the Press Center for Journalistic Investigations RISE Moldova Media-Guard Association Association of Environmental and Ecological Tourism Journalists April 6, 2021