Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Milan (Agenzia Fides) - The Italian Missionary Press Federation (also known as FESMI), which brings together some forty Italian newspapers for a total of about 500,000 issues per month, has made a statement expressing its protest to the interministerial decree of March 30, 2010 (published in the Official Gazette March 31, 2010, No. 75) that cancels special postal fares for all book publishers, newspapers, and monthly magazines. However, the decree specifies that a subsequent measure would establish additional facilities and this will inevitably be a “break” period between the enforcement of the first ruling and any subsequent one. Since the average increase is between 100 and 500% for each shipment, the FESMI joins non-profit organizations that are appealing to the government to immediately adopt measures that will avoid a dramatic increase in the budget of shipments. In particular, FESMI notes that this order would be an attack to missionary and international news magazines and fundraising activity. If the measure is not revised, the FESMI magazines will be forced to publish with less frequency or even stop their activities. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/04/2010)
