The general director of Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) warned the authorities and the public that the financial situation at BHRT is really serious and that this public broadcaster will be shut down if a different way of distributing the Radio and Television (RTV) tax is not established. There is no time left. The current contract on the collection of RTV tax in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) is in force until Sunday, December 31st. Workers and management fear the worst scenario – a complete shutdown.
The shutdown of the public service, as things stand now, will be brought about by entity broadcasters. There is no unique way of collecting the RTV tax in the state of BiH. Radio Television of the Republika Srpska (RTRS), which since 2017 has had a special agreement on the collection of RTV tax with the Post Office of the RS and does not transfer a single BAM to BHRT. In the FBiH, there is a problem because the entity broadcaster does not respect Article 23 of the Law on Public RTV Service and illegally accumulates money from the RTV tax on its account that does not belong to it while leaving the Television of BiH in a deep red, although the implementation of the Federal Television program depends on BHRT fulfilling its obligations.
“To this day, BHRT, as the owner of this building, rents its premises to Radio Television of the FBiH (RTVFBiH), for which it does not pay any funds to BHRT and, in addition, provides them with studio, technical, camera, studio services and everything necessary to produce the program. In the course of these six years, when we draw a line as to how things moved with the collection of fees, we can see that the calculation shows that the RTRS illegally kept 52.800.000 BAM, FTV 19.830.000 BAM, and BHRT is in the red for that entire period in the amount of 72.600.000 BAM,” says BHRT general director Belmin Karamehmedovic.
With this way and attitude in business, BHRT can no longer perform its function. What BHRT is asking for is the establishment of a financially self-sustaining public RTV service, which is one of the key conditions for BiH’s full membership in the European Union (EU). The transitional solutions so far have led to the fact that the two entity public services are very rich because, by methods of collecting the RTV tax that is not completely legal, they spent huge millions of funds that do not belong to them by law. If BHRT were to sign the annex, that is, the continuation of the contract under the same conditions as it has been for the last six years, it would mean the end of this public service. BHRT sees the solution in the fact that the RTV tax money from the FBiH is paid into their account, and they guarantee a fairer distribution than before. There is a problem because the illegal management of Federal Television does not agree to anything less than to keep funds that do not belong to them for themselves.
All previous audit reports indicate that the mandate of the Board of Directors and management of Federal Television expired 10 years ago. During that time, although legal, BHRT workers work in difficult conditions. The salary has not been adjusted for the last 15 years. Today, they fear a complete shutdown while doing their work on 40-year-old equipment. They know what it’s like to work without health and pension insurance, hence the fear that they will again end up in a situation where they work and do not receive a salary. Therefore, we are sending a final appeal to all authorities to save over 800 jobs.
“What you must know is that BHRT is like a patient on a ventilator, that workers are collateral damage of the state’s stepmotherly relationship with its institution. It is very important to note that 60 percent of BHRT workers have a salary of less than 800 BAM. If we take into account that the consumer basket in the FBiH is almost 3.000 BAM, then, perhaps, you can understand the condition of our wallets and how and with the help of which we support our families,” emphasizes Anel Nurkovic, member of the Executive Board of the Independent Workers’ Union in BHRT.
