The Press Urges Latvia to Solve Paper Shortage

The nation’s five major dailies complained Tuesday that Russian trade restrictions and Latvian government apathy are to blame for a critical newsprint shortage that has compelled Latvia’s newspapers to call a one-week strike.

The paper shortage has already caused sporadic shutdowns, and the Latvian Assn. of Newspaper Publishers and Editors called on the Riga government to take emergency steps to avert disaster.

“The idea isn’t to make the government give newspapers paper but to get it to adopt policies that would at least make it possible for the newspapers to buy some,” said Sarmite Elerte, deputy editor of Diena, which claims a daily circulation of 200,000.

Latvian publications depend on newsprint supplies from Russia and cannot afford to buy the paper on the world market, Elerte said. And if acceptable agreements cannot be made with Russia, the publishers want the government to take out loans to facilitate the purchase of newsprint in the West.

Even in rubles, the price of Russian paper has increased 15-fold. The publishers’ association also claims that delays by Russia in issuing export licenses have blocked the transport of about 100 tons of newsprint the papers have already purchased.

A treaty under negotiation between Latvia and Russia would provide only 7,000 tons of newsprint yearly--barely enough to print the country’s five major dailies, let alone the 32 weeklies and 10 monthlies.

The lack of paper already has forced two national dailies to temporarily stop their presses this month. “We couldn’t publish one time the week before last, and we’re very close to the critical point again,” said Aivars Pastalrieks, deputy editor of Latvijs Jaunatie, who noted, “We’ve been forced into going on strike just to get the government’s attention.”

At the 100,000-circulation Cina, Deputy Editor Eriks Hanbergs said the paper shortage has caused his paper to miss three issues already. “We’ve been publishing on paper that the director of the publishing house borrowed from Russian papers that are partly printed here,” he said. “But there’s a limit to how much you can borrow.