The Association of Independent Press submitted to the Government and the Parliament a law project regarding the denationalization of public newspapers. Previously, the project had been presented within the Public-Private Workgroup for Press Enhancement, Info-Prim Neo reports. AIP mentions in a press release that its project establishes the legal mechanism of transferring public newspapers from government property to other forms of ownership. Thus, local and regional publications could be transformed into district gazettes or could be privatized. If none of these measures are applied by the authorities that publish these journals with public funds, then the respective publications will close down. This law project was published by AIP in 2008. By the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, AIP presented it and consulted with the public from 12 cities. About 450 persons participated in open debates as part of a project financed by the U.S. Embassy in Moldova. AIP stresses that democratic standards recognized in Europe and internationally do not admit financing newspapers with public funds. It is only allowed to allot equal subventions to all the press institutions, without any administrative or economic discrimination. The direct funding of some publications by state authorities is discriminatory towards other newspapers and affects the competition between public and private publications. There are about 40 newspapers with public funding in Moldova. These are usually journals of district and municipal councils. Besides, AIP submitted the Government and Parliament another law project regarding state’s financial support for periodicals. AIP proposes a transparent mechanism of allotting financial aid to publications, based on criteria applied equally for all the newspapers, as recommended by the European Council. The project stipulates that public money will be offered through a special fund only to those periodicals that meet the requirements mentioned by the law.