Sarajevo, 17 November 2025 – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association calls on the members of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to urgently adopt decisions and immediately find a solution to the most serious crisis to date facing the state public broadcaster BHRT.
After the Presidency of BiH adopted the Draft Budget for this year, BHRT was left without 22 million KM that were intended to cover its debt to the European Broadcasting Union. The total debt of BHRT for taxes and employee social contributions amounts to 54 million KM, while the debt of RTRS towards BHRT – currently close to 100 million KM – remains the main cause of the broadcaster’s financial blockade. Due to unpaid bills, BHRT may soon be disconnected from electricity and gas, and the blocking of its bank accounts is also being considered because of more than 9.5 million KM in unpaid VAT.
If the accumulated debts are not urgently resolved and if sustainable funding for BHRT is not secured, the next step will be the seizure of the broadcaster’s assets, leaving more than 700 employees without jobs.
The long-standing negligent and irresponsible behaviour of the relevant institutions, primarily the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH as the founder of BHRT, towards the state public broadcaster is unacceptable. Political blockades and disregard for BHRT could have far-reaching consequences for the entire country, which cannot expect progress toward the European Union without a financially sustainable public RTV service. The survival of the public broadcasting system in BiH is one of the conditions the state must fulfil in the EU accession process. Additionally, the disconnection of electricity and gas, as well as asset seizures due to BHRT’s debt to the European Broadcasting Union would endanger the work of Federal TV, Television Sarajevo, Border Service transmitters, the Identification Documents Agency and telecommunication operators’ transmitters.
The BH Journalists Association calls on representatives of the competent institutions to end the delays and mutual blame-shifting and, without political calculations, assume their constitutional and legal responsibility to protect the state public broadcaster. We demand the urgent adoption of temporary financial measures that will prevent the shutdown of BHRT, the immediate initiation of procedures for the collection of RTRS’s debt, as well as the launching of legal amendments that will ensure a sustainable, transparent, and fair funding model for all three public broadcasters.
We warn that any further passivity will be considered a direct undermining of the public interest and an attack on citizens’ right to information. We expect concrete, measurable, and immediately implementable actions from the state leadership, rather than new promises and empty declarations of “concern” for the future of the state public broadcaster.
BHRT can no longer function on the brink of collapse, and institutions that continue to ignore this crisis will bear full responsibility before the citizens and international partners.
Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association
