Global media sounds alarm: BHRT collapse labeled €50M security threat, EU urged to intervene

The ongoing crisis, according to the signatories, is directly caused by the illegal and continuous withholding of legally mandated RTV-fee revenues by the entity public service broadcaster, Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS), a practice that has been in effect since 2017. This unlawful withholding of funds has resulted in BHRT sustaining a cumulative financial loss exceeding €50 million.

The organizations, including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI), and PEN International, stress that this deliberate obstruction threatens to permanently shut down BHRT. The letter frames the closure as an "irreversible setback" for media freedom, democracy, and citizens' essential access to reliable, impartial information.

The broad coalition of signatories, which also includes public broadcasters from countries such as Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Lithuania, urgently calls upon the European Commission and the international community to take immediate action with state institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They argue that the issue must be treated as a security threat, emphasizing that public service media is an essential pillar of democracy and a safeguard of peace, and its collapse would have consequences far beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina.