Karamehmedović: Tomorrow the deadline given by EBU expires, account blocking and possible end of BHRT to follow

(Patria) - Tomorrow the deadline given by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to BHRT to pay the debt, which with interest amounts to 22 million KM, expires.

In that letter, they clearly indicated that they would opt for freezing, i.e., blocking BHRT's accounts until the debt is paid, stated the acting General Director of BHRT, Belmin Karamehmedović, tonight in the special show "Don't Turn Off BHRT".

- Given that the EBU has not received any offer from the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina that would be satisfactory to enter into discussions with them, we can expect that after tomorrow's date they will initiate a court order for that account freezing.

This will give us some more time until the procedures are completed, but that time could be a month or two, and after that, it is definitely the end of BHRT – as we know it – Karamehmedović warned.

He reminds that less than a month ago, a show similar to tonight's was held in the BHRT studio, after which absolutely nothing happened in any sense, except that BHRT receives lawsuits from employees for unpaid contributions daily.

- Courts are processing these lawsuits urgently. We have already had blocked accounts four or five times this month.

The silver lining is that the amounts were not so large as to prevent us from doing our job, so among other things, we managed to provide citizens with coverage of the Winter Olympic Games by redirecting funds intended for employees' warm meals to paying for TV rights.

We are not really raising panic; we have been talking about our problem for years, and nothing concrete has been resolved so far in a way that respects the law.

We are the only ones respecting the law on public broadcasters, but unfortunately, it seems we live in a country where those who respect the law get the short end of the stick – Karamehmedović added.