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The public service broadcasting stations, consisting of one state-level broadcaster and two entity-based broadcasters, finally agreed on an appropriate way of collecting the subscription fee, officially named "subscription tax". The fee is based on the possession of radio and TV sets. This form of license fee funding should ­ in opposite to a system of funding from the state budget ­ ensure that broadcasters remain independent of political influence and control. Despite that, the Model Law on Public Service Broadcasting is still in its pending stage (see IRIS 2004-­1: 9), an arrangement dealing...

A team of experts assigned by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and responsible for restructuring the public broadcasting system has published a draft for a new law on public service broadcasting, officially named Model Law on Public Service Broadcasting. A reform of the existing legislation (see IRIS 2002-­6: 7 regarding the Law of 23 May 2002) has been considered necessary as the number of households paying the subscription fee has fallen below 30 percent and the three public broadcasters ­ countrywide BH-TV1 and two entity-based broadcasters RTFBiH for the Federation of Bosnia and...

Early in June, the House of Representatives of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Federation parliament (the lower house), endorsed a draft on amendments to the Law on public service Federal Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FTV BiH), forbidding direct TV broadcast of sessions of both houses of the BiH Federation parliament. The decision of the House of Peoples (the upper house) is expected to take place during 2003. As the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA), the regulatory authority responsible for the broadcasting and telecommunications sector, announced that it would not interfere in this case,...

In early May, the Editorial Principles of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina were adopted. The PBS in Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of the state-based Federal RTV B-H (FTV B-H) and Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RT RS), and of RTV B-H, serving as a countrywide broadcaster. The Editorial Principles set standards which the managers, editors and journalists of the PBS shall respect in their reporting. The guidelines are particularly focussed at helping journalists to act in a more responsible manner. Therefore the guidelines have been derived from the main European...

Recently, criticism has been raised regarding the Communications Regulatory Agency's (CRA) decision to issue a broadcasting license to RTV Pink BiH. Belgrade-based TV Pink's Plus Programme is broadcast via Sarajevo-based NTV 99. In order to legalize its Sarajevo broadcasts, TV Pink has registered its sister company in Bijeljina, north-east of Bosnia (Republika Srpska), under the name RTV Pink BiH. The Association of Electronic Media BiH (AEM) criticized the CRA's decision because of the alleged low quality of the programming. The CRA has emphasized that its decison does not concern the allocation...