Bosnia-Herzegovina

[BA] Law on the Public Broadcasting

IRIS 2002-6:1/14

Dusan Babic

Media Analyst, Sarajevo

On 23 and 24 May 2002, the High Representative issued a package of decisions providing a legal framework for three public broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely the Law on the Basis of the Public Broadcasting System and on the Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter "the Law on the Basis of the PB System"), the Law on Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Law on Radio-Television of Republika Srpska.

According to Article 3 of the Law on the Basis of the Sarajevo PB System, the Public Broadcasting System will be composed of: (1) the Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PBS BA), (2) Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RTV FBA), and (3) Radio-Television of Republika Srpska (RT RS) (see IRIS 2002-5: 5), adding that "[t]he organisation and activities of RTV FBA and RT RS as well as other related issues not regulated by this Law, shall be regulated by the laws on RTV FBA and RT RS".

PBS BA should be a nation-/countrywide public broadcaster while the other two shall remain as entity-based public broadcasters. As to the program content, Article 41 of the Law on the Basis of the PB System requires "Equal Ethnic Representation", as it is officially named, which also implies that PBS BA programming should reflect ethnic, cultural, social, religious and related pluralism and diversity.

Article 17 on the Basis of the PB System, concerning the distribution of broadcasting fees, guarantees 58 per cent of the fees to the public broadcasters and 42 per cent to PBS BA plus District Brcko.