RAK Council: Measures to help electronic media during the pandemic

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Bearing in mind that the current health crisis caused by the coronavirus has led to a decline in the revenues of broadcasting license holders, the Council of the Regulatory Agency for Communications (Agency) has adopted certain measures.

"The Decision on the rate and point value for the calculation of the annual fee for licenses has been amended, which sets the rate for calculating the annual fee for broadcasting licenses for 2020 at 0.25% (instead of 0.50%) of the total revenue of the license holder in fiscal 2019, and the deadline for payment of the calculated annual fee has been extended until 30.09.2020. The Decision on the adopted measure enters into force after publication in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The application of this measure will reduce the expenses of broadcasting license holders by approximately 185,000 KM," the RAK statement said.

In addition to this measure, it is added, the Agency Council instructed the Agency to initiate the procedure for adopting a decision of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on which the Regulatory Agency for Communications will pay the entire annual amount of the state contribution for the use of the frequency spectrum on behalf of all broadcasting license holders who are obliged to pay the said contribution by direct payment to the budget.

The application of this measure will reduce the expenses of broadcasting license holders by a total of 643,520 KM.

On this occasion, the General Director of the Agency, Predrag Kovač, stated: "In addition to the initiatives submitted to the Agency by the Association of Electronic Media (AEM), the Association of Private Electronic Media (PEM), and the Media Industry Association (UMI), the Agency has also independently recognized the need to adopt measures aimed at helping broadcasting license holders so that, in the circumstances of the current health crisis, they can preserve their independence and perform their work in accordance with the highest professional journalistic principles and standards."