BH Journalists: BHRT is slowly shutting down, this is no longer a warning but a reality

A month-long blockage of all BHRT accounts, as well as the decision to cancel two programmes due to a lack of funds for production and reporting by journalists from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, are the latest warnings to the country’s institutions, above all the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also to the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and other international organisations, the Association said, urging them to finally assume responsibility and take serious steps to save the public broadcasting system.

BH Journalists said they had warned the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers as early as late 2025 about the consequences of the financial and institutional blockade of BHRT, and had firmly demanded measures to save the broadcaster. The warning was also sent to then-High Representative Christian Schmidt, who, they said, was unwilling to stop the destruction of BHRT, although he had the authority to impose effective solutions for the collection of outstanding debts and the legally prescribed distribution of revenue from the RTV licence fee.

The Steering Board of BH Journalists considers the conduct of the current executive and legislative authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina unacceptable, saying they have apparently imposed a moratorium on their own work during the pre-election campaign, completely ignoring the plight of BHRT and its employees. In doing so, they have once again demonstrated their irresponsibility not only towards one media outlet, but also towards all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and their right to public information.

BH Journalists stressed that the shutdown of BHRT would not mean the closure of just one television and one radio programme, but would undermine the entire public broadcasting system comprising BHRT, RTVFBiH and RTRS, as well as their ability to provide citizens with functional, pluralistic and publicly accountable information.

At the same time, they added, the shutdown of BHRT would mean losing an important segment of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s media landscape in which citizens have the right to timely, accurate and impartial information on matters of public interest, while Bosnia and Herzegovina would become the only Western Balkan country without a state-level public broadcaster.

BH Journalists expressed particular concern about the current position of employees and the future of more than 700 journalists, editors, producers, camera operators, technicians and other media professionals, who could easily find themselves without jobs as early as tomorrow and become collateral damage of years of institutional blockades, political arrogance and the publicly demonstrated irresponsibility of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s authorities towards the employees and the media outlet they founded.

Expressing solidarity with BHRT employees and their years-long struggle to preserve the media outlet, the Steering Board of BH Journalists firmly called on the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Office of the High Representative, to urgently resolve the blockade of BHRT's accounts to create basic working conditions and halt reductions in programming, and to ensure the collection and distribution of RTV licence fee revenue in accordance with the law and final court rulings.

It also called for accountability to be established for the competent institutions and individuals responsible for years of failure to fulfil their legal obligations towards BHRT and for the absence of timely measures to prevent its financial collapse; for the establishment of a stable, transparent and independent financing model for public broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina that would prevent political and institutional blockades; and for the international community, particularly the OHR and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), to become urgently involved in finding a solution that would ensure the lawful functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s public broadcasting system, the Steering Board of the Association of BH Journalists said.