DUSHANBE, April 2, Asia-Plus  -- The process of reregistering the country’s print media, as well publishing houses and printers, has ended by April 1, Gulmahmad Davlatov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture (MoC), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, the ministry has officially registered 114 newspapers, five news agencies, 55 magazines, 28 publishing houses, and 93 printing houses by April 1.

The results of the re-registration process will be submitted for consideration to the government and it will make decision on ending or extending this process, the spokesman said.  

In the meantime, the ministry has not yet worked out a mechanism of penalizing of print media and publishing houses that failed to complete there-registration process by the deadline.  

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Mirzobadal Badalaov, the head of the MoC directorate for publishing houses and periodicals, said that government’s resolution requiring registration of print media and publishing houses has been sent for database upgrade.  “However, the print media and publishing houses that failed to be registered by the time will be penalized,” the MoC official said.  However, he did not specify what kind of penalty to be imposed on them.  

We will recall that earlier, the ministry had warned that the print media and publishing houses will be subject to suspicion if they fail to be registered by the deadline.