Bosnian broadcaster uses tent studio to protest over funding crisis

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's public broadcaster BHRT went on air from an improvised tent studio in bitter winter cold outside parliament on Thursday in a protest urging the government to prevent its collapse over mounting debt.

"This is the final warning," said Merima Kurtovic-Pasalic, the president of the BHRT union, as snowfall gradually blanketed the tent. "We are not going to plead anymore, the duty of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is to have the public broadcasting operator."

BHRT employs about 700 people and provides nationwide programming. Postwar Bosnia’s two autonomous regions — the Serb Republic and the Federation shared by Croats and Bosniaks — run their own broadcasters funded by licence fees added to electricity bills. Half of those fees should finance BHRT.

The system was created after the 1990s war with international support to unify three wartime ethnic broadcasters and curb nationalist rhetoric. But Serb and Croat nationalist parties have long opposed a single state broadcaster.

Since 2017, the Serb Republic’s RTRS has stopped transferring fees to BHRT, racking up debt of 102 million Bosnian marka ($60.5 million). Many Croats in the Federation also refuse to pay licence fees.

“We are facing cuts of gas and electricity, and possible confiscation of property,” said BHRT programme director Neda Tadic, citing debt owed to the European Broadcasting Union.

Any collapse of BHRT would damage Bosnia’s bid to join the European Union. “A country aspiring to join the European Union cannot be the only one in Europe without a state-owned public service broadcaster,” said Luigi Soreca, head of the EU delegation in Bosnia.

"The disappearance or collapse of BHRT would represent a major step backwards for the country, and would tarnish Bosnia and Herzegovina's international image."

Despite nearly a dozen court rulings ordering RTRS to pay, none have been enforced. Political deadlock has blocked decision-making for years, and the 2025 state budget adopted this month cut off BHRT’s financing.

Council of Ministers chairwoman Borjana Kristo said Thursday there is still no consensus on how to fund the broadcaster.