Due to the blocking of accounts, February brings even greater uncertainty for BHRT, because it is a month in which, in addition to numerous debts, the debt to the EBU in the amount of almost 22 million marks must be settled.
The account is blocked, the workers are in uncertainty, the debts have started to be collected, but the program is not working. BHRT workers perform their work with dignity every day, as befits employees of the public radio and television service of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Professionals as we are, we try not to reflect this on our program and it will be like that until the last moment, until we can function at all. We have become masters of improvisation and we do everything so that it is not noticed in the program, that is, so that our viewers notice as little as possible all the problems we are facing”, emphasizes the director of BHT1 Neda Tadić.
In order to try to resolve the financial situation at BHRT, several solutions for BHRT were proposed at yesterday’s Committee for Transport and Communications of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Among other things, by the decision of the high representative, 50 million marks should be set aside from the income of the Central Bank of BiH, or that BHRT should be given some kind of loan, which it would repay after the execution of court judgments against RTRS. Parliamentarians continue to declaratively support the Public Broadcasting Service, but without concrete steps.
“I can’t even imagine that there will be a shutdown of BHRT and we once again appeal to the high representative because that is currently the only address that can financially help BHRT in accordance with the competences”, notes Jasmin Emrić, representative of NES in PSBiH.
Deputies in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly have different views on BHRT problems, as well as on the addresses to which these problems should be directed.
“My position is that BHRT must exist and that everyone needs it for reporting purposes. I have been a guest countless times, I have always had fair cooperation and I absolutely think that it should function and exist, but in accordance with all those regulations at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it must never and in any way be an instrument of any policy”, said Milan Petković, representative of the United Srpska in PSBiH.
“There were different initiatives and I have to admit that we in the House of Representatives had different opinions regarding BHRT. As a person, I feel sorry for those people who work at BHRT that they got into such a situation, but to tell you the truth, I think that the most responsible for this situation is the management of BHRT”, says SNSD representative in PSBiH Miroslav Vujičić.
“A completely unacceptable situation. We, within the House of Representatives and at the end of the calendar year, requested that certain funds be allocated by the Council of Ministers and that the issue of BHRT be resolved. Unfortunately, due to the misunderstanding of the institutions, specifically the Council of Ministers, we have just been brought into this situation,” said SDP MP in PSBiH Albin Muslić.
“It is a question that really needs to be resolved through certain decisions and the executive power in the Council of Ministers, who should of course have enough latitude to resolve it. Now this kind of vanity and frustration that exists between them, calculations of what in what way, an attempt at some additional trade between us and you, you with us,” believes PDP representative in PSBiH Branislav Borenović.
The debt of RTRS to BHRT is growing daily, the high representative refers to domestic institutions, domestic institutions refer to his office (OHR). The time and financial pressures for the public service are enormous, and while the ball of responsibility is being shifted, the workers of BHRT face a more uncertain period than ever before.
