HNS proposes future structure of Public RTV Service in BiH

The Main Council of the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) has offered a model for the future structure of Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Public RTV System in Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes Patria. According to the HNS proposal, published on Friday after the session of the HNS Main Council in Mostar, the future Public RTV system in BiH should consist of four program components (services).

The first component is BHRT 1 — a Public Service within BHRT headquartered in Sarajevo. The program in this service would be broadcast in the languages of all three constituent peoples, cover program content intended for the widest audience, all publics and all citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and include programs of general importance for all citizens in the country (Olympic Games, world and European championships in various sports, sports, entertainment and cultural events of international significance). BHRT B — a Public RTV Service headquartered in Sarajevo, would broadcast its program primarily in the Bosnian language and with program content that affirmatively connotes and reproduces the social, national and cultural identity of Bosniaks in BiH. BHRT S would be headquartered in Banja Luka, broadcast its program in the Serbian language, and affirm the social, national and cultural identity of Serbs in BiH, while BHRT H would be headquartered in Mostar and broadcast its program in the Croatian language. The possibility of cooperation between these four services, as well as between these services and services of other countries, has been left open.

The HNS proposal states that FTV and RTRS would no longer be financed from the state budget. The services proposed by HNS would be financed from multiple sources, but these issues need to be further defined. One of the financing models is also an RTV fee to be paid by citizens.

- The RTV fee payment would be made to special accounts that each public RTV service would exclusively have for that purpose. All accounts would be administered by a Joint Collection Service within BHRT 1, which would automatically distribute the collected funds in the described ratio – 30% BHRT: 30% BHRT B: 25% BHRT S: 15% BHRT H. The Joint Collection Service within BHRT 1 would also collect and distribute revenues from the distribution of goods and services on a global level. Funds obtained from commercial sources would remain 100% with the public service that generates them – the HNS proposal states, reports Patria.

You can view the complete HNS proposal on the future structure of the Public RTV Service in BiH HERE.