Amsterdam - The Dutch government and opposition members have joined forces to boost the financial position of Dutch newspapers and investigative journalism.

The editions of Dutch newspapers have been on the decline for several years, particularly since the launch of the Internet.

Each day, a total of 5,463,692 newspaper copies are printed in the Netherlands, but the number is falling some 2.5 per cent per quarter.

In the second quarter of 2008, the print run of the quality newspaper Volkskrant dropped 4.5 per cent.

Now that the credit crisis has reached the Netherlands - in 2009 the economy is expected to shrink around 0.75 per cent - the number of advertisements in newspapers is also dropping rapidly.

On Thursday, the Dutch parliament is due to debate possible measures to assist newspapers.

Science, Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk has proposed transferring money resulting from public television commercials to a so-called printed media innovation committee.

During the same debate opposition lawmaker Boris van der Ham of the liberal left D'66 party will file a petition for the government to establish a special fund to support research journalism.

"Investigative journalism is of great importance to a democracy," Van der Ham told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The liberal-left lawmaker said "all projects demanding long-term investments are commercially unattractive."

This is particularly the case with investigative journalism, Van der Ham said, because "you can never predict whether an investigation will bear any results."

He proposes expanding existing Dutch legislation for innovative scientific research, which covers the special funding given to researchers for projects from the NWO - the Dutch National Organization of Academics.

A special committee run by academic peers decides which research proposals receive funding.

Van der Ham says Dutch investigative journalists should also be able to apply for funding. Journalistic peers will then decide who will receive which funding, and for how long.

"This way, an editorial board can assign one or more journalists to investigate a particular issue for an entire year," Van der Ham explains, "without the regular budget of the editorial board being affected by it."

Meanwhile Plasterk will defend his proposal in parliament to transfer 4 per cent of revenues from public television commercials to a so-called printed media innovation committee.

Dutch public television and radio receive some 500 million euros (690 million dollars) in government funding, excluding 200 million euros resulting from commercials.

Under Plasterk's plans, the innovation committee would then have 8 million euros to investigate how the print sector can try to innovate itself.

The minister says he is particularly interested in stimulating the commercial potential of digital media. So far, newspapers only tend to lose money or at best break even on their news websites.

The Dutch Journalists Association NVJ says it supports the establishment of an innovation fund, but says 8 million euros is by far not enough.

But newspaper publishers and editors as well as lawmakers from parties of several political colours say that establishing a special committee will not solve the media industry's problems.

Plasterk is not taking the crisis in the printed media seriously, they charge.

Last week, 40 newspaper publishers and editors signed a letter to Plasterk to complain about what they call "unfair competition" between the Dutch public broadcasters and the print media.

The signatories said that television commercials have a negative impact on ability of print media to attract advertisers. TV commercials reach a bigger audience, are more expensive and therefore generate more money than newspapers could ever get.

This creates an imbalance in the market, the publishers argued. They said that public broadcasters benefit twice - from both substantial government funding and from commercials - while print media need to cope independently.

In his letter sent to parliament in early December, Plasterk however wrote that most newspaper do not want structural financial support from the government, adding he is also not prepared to provide ongoing funding.

"Contrary to public broadcasters, daily newspapers are commercial organizations that work for a profit," the minister argued.