The public broadcaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a financial crisis that threatens its existence. Behind this is also the intention of the Bosnian Serbs to undermine the existence of the entire state.
What’s next? That is the question that hangs over everything at BHRT. The public broadcaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a financial crisis that threatens its existence. “Not a single elevator in the building has been working for three months. So all employees walk up twelve floors to get to their outdated workplaces,” says BHRT director Nena Tadić.
“We try not to make a program with anything. We have no money to go out, shoot reports or cover the living expenses of the employees.” The station reduces everything to the bare essentials in order to comply with the legal obligation and to be a service for all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As of the beginning of February, BHRT was missing more than 50 million euros. The result was blocked accounts and outstanding electricity and satellite bills; There are also debts to suppliers and especially to the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union. By the end of February, BHRT would have had to pay the equivalent of eleven million euros in debt to the EBU. According to BHRT, these debts have not been paid. The relevant deadline has expired.
The EBU has one ARD-Inquiry not initially responded. It therefore remains unclear whether the deadline has actually expired and what happens next. Nena Tadić now fears that the EBU will instruct the Bosnian and Herzegovinian courts to block all BHRT accounts and use all incoming funds to pay off the debt.
As soon as that happens, there will no longer be any funds available for further broadcasting operations. The approximately 780 employees would effectively be on the streets. According to director Tadić, there is a risk of collapse: “It would mean media darkness in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We would then be the only European country without public broadcasting and therefore not in a position to become a member of the European Union.”
Protest in the bitter cold: In November, BHRT journalists reported from a tent in front of the parliament in Sarajevo to draw attention to the station’s situation.
Fight for the existence of the country
The reason for the crisis is a conflict between BHRT and RTRS. The latter is the public broadcaster in Republika Srpska, the Serbian-dominated part of the country and one of the two entities in the country. “We have a state that consists of two entities and the Brčko district. This is exactly how this radio and television system is divided,” explains Tadić. “These public institutions are responsible for collecting the broadcasting fee in their respective parts of the country. According to the same law, they are obliged to transfer 50 percent of the fees collected in the territory of their institutions to BHRT’s account, since we are all part of the same system.”
According to the director, that’s exactly what doesn’t happen. RTRS does not pay its legally required share of the broadcasting fee despite court rulings. At BHRT they say there were changes in payment around nine years ago. Under political instructions, RTRS decided to keep the entire fee collected.
Ten court cases later, there is still no solution, although even the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pointed out that the relevant laws regulating the distribution of fees must be complied with. Tadić therefore sees Milorad Dodik as responsible.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into the Serb-ruled Republika Srpska, the Bosniak-Croat-ruled Federation and the Brčko District as a special administrative region. The sub-entities have their own political institutions and are linked by a weak central government. The distribution of power between Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats is divided according to quotas. There is not just one, but three state presidents for the approximately 3.2 million inhabitants.
The failures of politics
The former president of Republika Srpska has been deposed after a court ruling because of separatist activities. But his party is still trying to weaken all institutions at the federal level, including BHRT, in order to portray a functioning state as impossible and pave the way for secession.
Just at the beginning of February, Dodik said on the RTRS program: “My main goal is the independent Republika Srpska, and that has not disappeared. It has not disappeared.”
But looking only at Republika Srpska to blame is not enough, says Maja Sever. The journalist from Croatia is chairwoman of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). The “Milorad Dodiks” may be at the forefront of the cause, says Sever. “But it’s not that simple. Politicians in Sarajevo have been ignoring the fee problem for years. They don’t really want to solve the problem.”
What Sever means: The BHRT crisis has long since reached politics, without it having achieved anything so far. In order to change that, at the end of January the Presidium, i.e. the country’s three-person head of state, consisting of a representative each of the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, passed a series of resolutions to save BHRT. These include, among other things, the compulsory enforcement of the RTRS debts as well as immediate emergency funding from budgetary funds to prevent the blackout of BHRT and also guaranteed wages for its employees.
But: When it comes to implementing these measures, Parliament comes into play. And there, the respective ethnic parties regularly block or delay each other’s decisions.
A case for Schmidt?
The journalist Maja Sever therefore brings Christian Schmidt, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, into play. “I want to approach him with the motto: Help them! Force them to find solutions to save BHRT if they can’t find a sensible solution nationally.”
So far it has been heard from Schmidt’s environment that he should not be the one to take over the tasks of parliament. Sever concludes: “I don’t know how they can survive without major changes, without serious investment and financing in the near future.” It’s a question that BHRT is also asking itself.
