DUSHANBE, August 3, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Five Dushanbe independent weeklies, namely Ozodagon , Paykon , S.S.S.R , Millat , and Borgohi Sukhan , may not be brought out this week.

These weeklies are printed at the Dushanbe printing house, Mushfiqi.  The Mushfiqi director Umed Sattorov told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon that they may fail to print the weeklies as the printing press broke down on Monday.  “The problems with the printing press’ cylinder began last Saturday already and it became unserviceable on Monday,” said Sattorov, “We have a small printing press but we will fail to print all newspapers.  To-date, we have printed the Mushfiqi , Karavan , Gorodok , and Dilkusho weeklies, while the printing of the remaining newspapers is still questionable.”

He added the printing house had given advance notice to editors of the mentioned weeklies about the cylinder damage.

“It will take us some three weeks to repair the printing press,” said Sattorov, “We will have to order new cylinder in Russia or India.  A total cost is US$20,000.  After that, these weeklies will continue to be printed in our printing house, except Millat , which now owes some 7,000 somoni to us.  I will refuse to print this newspaper due to this debt; I have warned them.”

In the meantime, the Ozodagon editor Zafar Sufi says the printing house is responsible for the printing of the weekly.  “Our contract with Mushfiqi on printing our newspaper is in effect until the end of this year and they must print it without delays,” said Sufi, “The Mushfiqi director informed us about the damage but it is their problem and the newspaper must be brought out on time.  Mushfiqi must be engaged in seeking another printing house for printing the newspaper because we concluded the contract with them.”