Today, a statement by the editors of Volyn newspapers regarding gross administrative interference in the subscription process for periodicals was published in the print media of Volyn Oblast. The text of the statement, in particular, says: \n \n"Every day brings us new strange stories from the practice of the current subscription campaign. Each one more incredible than the last. Here is a call from Lutsk district. A reader asks for advice - how should she act if the oblast newspaper "Dosvitnia Zoria" and, in addition, a district one are being imposed on her, while she wants to have a completely different one. We advise her to subscribe to what she wants. But how can she subscribe, she asks, when she was told: if you don't fulfill the quota - we'll fire you from work?" We nevertheless tried to persuade the woman to muster the courage at least to read what she likes. \n \nAnother case. A boarding school was given the task of subscribing to 70 copies of "Dosvitnia Zoria". We will not emphasize the fact that this is a school for the mentally retarded. The approach itself is strange: "Dosvitnia Zoria" - and only that! When they dared to ask why a newspaper that few people read was being imposed, they heard a menacing answer: "You there, talk less, and do what you are told. Otherwise you will have a conversation in another place." \n \nThe question arises: from what arsenal are these methods? And where are we going? Such administrative pressure did not exist even in Communist Party times. Back then, people were also obliged to subscribe to party publications, but only communists. Communist Party times have long passed, but their methods, in a worse version, are now being revived in Volyn. Executive authority officials at all levels have now largely retrained as distributors of one publication. Subscription to "Dosvitnia Zoria" is placed among their most responsible tasks. Its fulfillment is strictly controlled, and loyalty of personnel is judged by this indicator. What would one not do in order to have a pocket newspaper! \n \nThis shameful commotion has reached a paranoid limit: employees of district newspapers are now being forced to subscribe to "Dosvitnia Zoria". You there, they say, are prattling something to your readers about freedom of speech - so just remember how much a pound of it costs in Volyn. \n \nSuch brazen disregard for democratic principles, such "brute-force" methods of interference in the information space, and brutal attempts to redistribute it to satisfy the selfish interests of a certain circle of individuals - we have never seen before. Law enforcement structures, oblast administrations, and other state institutions have been drawn into this matter. Specialists in manipulating people's consciousness are back in fashion. Again they want to drive us into reservations where a slave mentality is cultivated. \n \nWe appeal to our readers with a call to resist attempts at gross encroachment on the human right to free access to information, and not to allow themselves to be drawn into a dirty, unworthy game of imposing publications pleasing to the authorities and falsifying the will of citizens during the subscription campaign. Everyone must freely, without fear of administrative pressure, subscribe to the publications they want. No one can take this right away from readers. \n \nFeodosii MANDZYOK, editor-in-chief of "Lutskyi Zamok". \nStepan SACHUK, editor-in-chief of "Volyn". \nHalyna FEDORENKO, editor-in-chief of "Volynski Hubernski Vidomosti". \nYevhen KHOTYMCHUK, editor-in-chief of "Visnyk". \nMykola PASAMAN, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Slovo i Dilo", deputy of the Volyn Oblast Council. \n \nReference: the newspaper "Dosvitnia Zoria" has been published since March 31, 1995. Its founders are the Volyn Oblast State Administration and the Volyn Oblast Council. As of today, the circulation of the newspaper "Dosvitnia Zoria" is 10,500 copies. It is published once a week. Volume - 4 printed sheets. Price - 50 kopecks. Next year, the newspaper's editorial office plans to increase publication to twice a week.