BiH, the public service on the brink of collapse

The public service in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in increasingly dire straits. In the absence of real reform, the lack of a sustainable financing mechanism has caused tensions to explode between two of the three public broadcasters

Tensions between the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) and Radio Television of the Federation of BiH (RTVFBiH) culminated on May 8 with BHRT's decision to temporarily turn off the RTVFBiH signal due to accumulated debts.

Therefore, from 6 in the morning, when broadcast was suspended, on the RTVFBiH channel viewers could only see a monoscope, which was only interrupted to air the news.

Then, during the day, the Sarajevo court adopted a provisional measure, forcing the BHRT to restore RTVFBiH's signal because, as the judges explained, the decision to stop broadcasting had no legal basis.

Last May 7, the Board of Directors of the BHRT took the decision to turn off the signal of the public broadcaster of the BiH Federation, stating that the debts accrued by the RTVFBiH towards the BHRT (for a total amount of approximately 820,000 Euros for the period between December 2023 and May 2024) hinder the normal functioning of the public service. It should be noted that the BHRT is also indebted to the RTVFBiH, for the period indicated above, for almost 187,000 Euros.

The RTVFBiH managers defined the decision to turn off the broadcaster's signal as an illicit and uncivilised act, announcing that they intended to file a complaint against the BHRT administration. The RTVFBiH employees' union also announced legal action. Workers are also ready to take to the streets to protest if the issue is not resolved.

On the other hand BHRT employees, collateral victims of the dispute between the two broadcasters, are also going through a difficult period, and they do not even know whether they will receive their April salary. It therefore seems that the uncertainty in which the employees of the two public broadcasters have been living for years is destined to continue.

Several politicians, media and non-governmental organisations, as well as representatives of the international community in BiH, condemned the decision to turn off the signal of the public broadcaster of the Federation of BiH.

An age-old problem

The organisation, activity and relations between the three public broadcasters of Bosnia and Herzegovina are regulated by a 2005 law which provides, among other things, for the creation of a public company responsible for the entire national radio and television system. This company was never created due to the obstructionism of political elites.

So, the three utilities continue to sue each other, owe each other money, and compete in the same market. The broadcasters retained the powers and assets that should have been transferred to the company for the management of the radio and television system. Most of the employees, as well as the ownership of the equipment and other assets of the old Radio Television of BiH (RTVBiH, restructured in 1998), passed to the BHRT.

The creation of a single company responsible for all three public broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina would lay the foundations of a sustainable system for collecting the radio and television license fee, which remains the main source of public service financing.

The decline in BHRT's revenue is due precisely to the impossibility of collecting the radio and television license fee and the sums for the provision of services to the public broadcasters of the two constituent entities of BiH. If in other countries the collection of the license fee is a technical issue, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the problem is purely political.

In an attempt to ensure sustainable and long-lasting financing of the public service, a mechanism was introduced in 2017 whereby the radio and television license fee is added to the electricity bill.

In March this year, after a succession of mutual accusations between the leaders of the RTVFBiH and those of the BHRT, it was decided to renew the agreement between the public service and the Electricity Company of BiH on the collection of the radio and television license fee.

The disadvantage of this model is that it is applied only in those areas of the country where the electricity supply is entrusted to the Electricity Agency of BiH. To date, public radio and television has not entered into any agreement on the collection of license fees with the Electricity Company of Republika Srpska nor with that of the Croatian community of Herzeg-Bosna (owned by the BiH Federation).

After years of "attempts" by political decision-makers to solve the problem of public service financing, it has emerged that it is politicians who are exploiting the issue for their power struggles. Instead of finding a solution, politicians are obstructing the collection of the radio and television license fee.

Bosnian-Herzegovinian public opinion recalls a whole series of campaigns launched by politicians of both entities to prevent citizens from paying the radio and television license fee, even though it is an obligation established by law.

In the Federation of BiH, in the cantons with a Croatian majority, no one pays the RTV license precisely because of the campaigns carried out by Croatian politicians. In recent years, politicians in Republika Srpska have also repeatedly invited citizens not to pay the license fee.

This is why for years now the BHRT has registered a decline in revenue from the license fee and is unable to collect the sums it is entitled to by law. According to data provided by the Agency for Indirect Taxes of BiH, BHRT's debt amounted to approximately 3.2 million Euros in 2023.

In 2022 alone, the broadcaster recorded a drop in revenues deriving from the license fee of around 400,000 Euros, plus a loss of over 800,000 Euros, as a result of the seizure of BHRT's current account by the Federation Revenue Agency BiH.

In January 2023, with the aim of ensuring the survival of the public service, the BHRT administration presented a package of savings and debt collection measures that were the subject of judicial disputes.

There have also been several attempts in the past to resolve the long-standing problem of public service financing, including a 2018 bill that provided for the BHRT to be financed from the state budget, and the RTVFBiH and the RTRS from the budgets of the two entities. The proposal, however, turned out to be yet another failure and did not reach a broad consensus.

Earlier this year, deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina organised a debate on the situation of BiH's public broadcaster. Then, in February, the Council of Ministers decided to allocate ten million marks (around five million Euros) for the development of electronic media.

Of this amount, four million went to the BHRT, three million to the government of the BiH Federation and the remaining three to the government of Republika Srpska. To date, however, no step forward has yet been taken to find a lasting solution to the problem of financing the public radio and television system.

The separatism of the RTRS

BiH's third public service broadcaster, Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS), is not even mentioned in the current controversy. About twenty years ago, with the help of the government of Republika Srpska, the RTRS obtained a building where it moved its headquarters, and from that moment the process of real secession of this broadcaster began.

In 2013, the People's Assembly of the RS decided to exclude the Communications Regulatory Agency (RAK) from the procedure for appointing members of the Board of Directors of the RS Radio and Television, also approving the proposal to finance the RTRS from the budget of the RS Republika Srpska.

With these two moves, the leadership of Banja Luka officially took control of the public service of the RS, violating the principles established by the Law on the Public Radio and Television System of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The system finally collapsed in 2017 following RTRS's decision to collect the radio and television license fee independently. RTRS's debt to the BHRT currently amounts to approximately forty million Euros.

The law provides that half of the public service revenue from license fee collection and advertising goes to the BHRT (also to enable it to fulfill its international obligations) and that the other half is divided between the RTVFBiH and the RTRS.

Although this is an obligation established by law, citizens can also decide not to pay the radio and television license fee because the legislation does not provide for any sanction for non-payment, much less an effective system of compulsory collection.

The US State Department report  on the human rights situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023 states, among other things, that the BHRT and the RTVFBiH continue to work without a stable and sustainable source of funding that allows them to pursue an independent editorial policy.

The failure to apply the Law on Public Services and the impossibility of collecting the radio and television license fee brought the BHRT to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing it - as stated in the report - to downsize its activities.

However, the public broadcaster of Republika Srpska and that of the BiH Federation do not collect the license fee, even if they are required to do so according to current legislation. The report also highlights that the Bosnian and Herzegovinian leadership has not yet managed to create a company that manages all three of the country's public broadcasters as required by law.

Even in the new report on press freedom in the world, published by Reporters Without Borders, it is stated that the BHRT is on the verge of financial collapse. According to the latest RSF ranking, Bosnia and Herzegovina has fallen by 17 positions compared to the previous year, ranking 81st, and is at the bottom of the list in the Western Balkans.

Ensuring stable financing of the public service is one of the fourteen priorities identified by the European Commission in its opinion  on Bosnia and Herzegovina's application for membership of the EU, a priority that the country must satisfy on its path towards the Union.

The Commission reiterated this in its latest progress report  on Bosnia and Herzegovina, published in November 2023, warning that BiH risks becoming the only European country without a public service.