BHRT suspends services to RTV FBiH, programming available only during news and bulletins

(Patria) - Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) has suspended its services to RTV of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RTV FBiH) as of this morning, except for the production of news and bulletins.

The Management Board of RTV Federation of BiH has called for reason and cooperation from the BHRT Management instead of further deepening the crisis and jeopardizing the work of both public broadcasters based in Sarajevo, and halting the core activities of RTV Federation of BiH.

"By denying the production of FTV's political programs, citizens of the Federation and BiH are deprived of the opportunity to become acquainted with the views, ideas, and plans of protagonists on the domestic political scene, and in this way, BHRT directly violates the constitutional right to information.

At the same time, our employees are denied their constitutional right to work, while also causing significant material damage to RTV Federation of BiH.

The Management Board of Federal Radio Television warns that the announced actions by BHRT would have unforeseeable consequences for partner private and public companies that also carry out their core activities through the RTV Federation's programming.

For all the aforementioned reasons, the legal responsibility of the BHRT management, as well as responsibility for damages in this case, is certain.

Therefore, we once again call on the BHRT Management to be reasonable.

It is known that RTV Federation of BiH regularly paid all its obligations to BHRT on a monthly basis until the suspension of collection on December 31, 2023, and the distribution of the RTV fee, and intends to continue doing so as soon as the distribution of the RTV fee based on legal grounds is established. We remind that on this basis, we have duly paid over 100 million convertible marks to BHRT for more than 200 previous months. The BHRT Management is well aware that we have not been fulfilling these obligations regularly only in the last four months when we were left without the RTV fee as the primary income, and BHRT is responsible for the termination of the RTV Fee Agreement on December 31, 2023, by not signing it. This means we paid for all services for over twenty years, and now, because we haven't paid for the last four months for the justified reasons stated, BHRT has decided to shut down the RTV Federation of BiH program.

This is unacceptable in business and any other ethics, and as these are public services, we fear it also contains elements of a criminal offense.

In the same period when we were deprived of the basic income from the RTV fee, BHRT received 4 million convertible marks from the relevant Ministry to continue its work, not to spend all the funds 'in a flash' and start shutting down the program of the federal public service.

Instead of exhausting ourselves, we call on BHRT to finally proceed with signing an Agreement with Elektroprivreda BiH, which will, on one hand, guarantee the legal distribution of the RTV fee, and on the other hand, enable higher revenues for BHRT, up to several million marks annually, as FTV has offered in the past two months through a concrete internal agreement between the two broadcasters. We do not understand why BHRT persistently rejects such proposals, without offering any other legally based proposal. We reiterate that the implementation of these proposals would enable the uninterrupted broadcasting of programs by both public broadcasters, salaries for all their employees, and adherence to the existing legal frameworks that guarantee a unified Public Service in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With this statement, the Management Board calls on all relevant institutions and individuals to stop the shutdown of the Public Service RTV Federation of BiH program," it was announced from RTV FBiH on Tuesday.