Bosnian state television warns of possible closure

The administrative board of BHRT, Bosnia’s public service broadcaster, has warned that the organisation may have to close if its extreme financial hardship continues.

“Our situation is critical: we cannot even sustain our expenses for gas and electricity, not to mention the €5 million (approx. US$5,500,000) that we should pay the European Broadcasting Union,” Belmin Karamehmedović, the director of the television station, told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) yesterday, adding that Bosnia and Herzegovina would be the only European country without its own state television, if BHRT were to disappear.

The management released a statement last week, affirming that the television station had already done everything within its power to cut costs.

“The costs for human resources have been reduced by a million KM (approx. US$560,000) in comparison to 2015 and we have already cut all possible expenses without damaging our daily work,” the board stated, calling for a quick reform of the public television system.

According to BHRT’s management, one of the key challenges facing the broadcaster is a consistent fall in revenue from taxes, which is falling by around €2 million (approx. US$2,200,000) per year. BIRN’s report on the situation cites statistics from Aljazeera Balkans, which indicate that only around half of those Bosnians who should pay the €3.80 in tax to the public broadcaster actually do so. The report suggests that a crucial problem may lie in the increasing reliance on mobile phones of the Bosnian population, as tax for the state television is customarily collected within the bills for the three main fixed line telephone operators.

Despite requests by the management for a swift review of the law to find alternative funding for BHRT, the Bosnian government, the Council of Ministers, has yet to agree on a solution. The Council of Ministers is due to meet to discuss a draft law on 4 February.

In the meantime, the Union of BHRT Workers has called for a protest. Workers are due to gather today to show opposition to the inaction of the management and response from government institutions.

Source: BIRN