Journalists and activists visit BHRT to support public broadcaster

(Patria) - Journalists from several newsrooms and representatives of civil society visited the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) to express support for the public broadcaster in the difficult situation it and its employees are facing.

In addition to meeting with Lejla Babović, Assistant Director General of BHRT, Neda Tadić, Director of BHT1 Programming, and Dejan Petrović, Editor of BHT1 News Program, journalists and activists also recorded statements of support for the public broadcaster.

- Today we are here from various organizations, media outlets, and backgrounds, from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this, we want to send a clear message about how important the public service is for all its citizens.

This visit is a symbolic act of solidarity with BHRT employees, but also another call for resolving the issue of its sustainability and stability.

We want to highlight the urgency of implementing court rulings, as well as the need to adopt a new law on the RTV system at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An independent, functional, and sustainable public service is a guarantee of the existence of space for the voice of all of us in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Losing that, for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, would be a step of no return - said Maida Muminović, Director of the Mediacenter Sarajevo Foundation.

- When people who do the same job as us visit us, it carries extra weight, because these people are aware of what we do, under what conditions, in what political climate, what our daily work is like.

Gathering colleagues from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina to come together and see how we work in impossible conditions is a great undertaking, and everyone at BHRT should be given a boost - said Lejla Babović.

She believes the visit was organized at the right time because BHRT is in an extremely difficult situation, especially in recent months, so any kind of support that comes, not just verbally, means a lot.

- However, no one has ever said they would come and see the conditions we work in, the state of the RTV Home building, and whether these are even humane conditions.

Therefore, great praise to Mediacentar and all those who came up with the idea to come and share a day with colleagues at BHRT - added Babović.

Appeals have been sent for months, protests have been organized, and attempts have been made to find a way out of the crisis, to find funds to cover debts and sources of stable financing.

The latest in a series of actions is the campaign "Let's not allow others to tell our stories," in which BHRT has appealed to all socially responsible business entities, institutions, and individuals to secure financial support in the fight to preserve its signal.

Facing the biggest challenge since its establishment, they previously warned that the shutdown of the public service is an "inevitable fate if solutions for debt repayment are not found urgently".

- Without the support of domestic authorities or the High Representative, Bosnia and Herzegovina could become the only European country without a public RTV service - they stated in their appeal.

BHRT's operations are jeopardized due to a debt of 22 million convertible marks to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the threat of account blocking, as well as other outstanding obligations such as taxes and contributions, VAT, and utilities, and a debt to RTRs for RTV fee collection. This amount exceeds 104 million.

At the end of February, for one day, BHRT's programming was interrupted, with a warning that darkened screens and a definitive shutdown in the near future could be the reality for the public service.

Along with appeals for this not to happen, through their visit and statements of support on air, journalists and activists, who visited the public service of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, contributed to this fight, repeating the message - "Don't shut down BHRT".

Representatives from Mediacentar Sarajevo, the Press and Online Media Council in BiH, OSCE, the JaBiHEU Association, the Umbrella Association, the Network of Youth for Better Media, Friends of Srebrenica, the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN), as well as media outlets Radio Osvit and RTV Slon were present at the visit to BHRT.