The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) urged authorities and politicians at all levels in Bosnia-Herzegovina to “take immediate action to improve the situation of the media in the country.”

In a statement published on the EBU website, the organisations stressed that BiH authorities “need to tackle the financial and functional problems of the Bosnian Herzegovinian public service broadcaster (BHRT), look again at the new proposals to criminalize defamation, and address restrictions on freedom of expression and the media” in order to “safeguard media pluralism and the role it plays in a healthy democracy.”

“We are asking for a sustainable funding solution for public service media, for urgent amendments to the Law on BHRT to establish a Corporation, a change to the criteria for the election of governing bodies, a plan to solve the challenge of broadcasting to Croats in the country and the adoption of a new strategy,” the organisations said.

It also noted that BHRT previously warned that “the financing and survival of BHRT as a public service at the state level is seriously threatened, and there is no political will to solve it because the public broadcasters are controlled by the leading political parties and they have no interest in solving the issue of BHRT“.