The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been particularly active in the first few weeks of this year in highlighting the problems faced by public service broadcasting in Central and Eastern Europe.
Its initial focus was very much on Poland, where the new Law and Justice (PiS) government made huge changes at Telewizja Polska (TVP) this January. Besides replacing most if not all the station’s senior management, it altered the whole philosophy governing the way it is run, including programming strategy.
These changes were made possible through controversial amendments to the country’s Law on Broadcasting. Enacted at the beginning of the year and criticised by the EBU and other media organisations, they effectively allowed the government to appoint the supervisory and management boards at TVP at its own discretion.
Meanwhile in Croatia, the EBU late last month appealed directly the Tihomir Oreskovic, the country’s prime minister, to safeguard the editorial and institutional independence of the public broadcaster Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (HRT). This was in response to reports of political pressure being placed on HRT’s management in recent weeks.
The EBU has also turned its attention to two other countries – Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) – where public broadcasters are facing serious financial difficulties.
In a letter published only this week, the EBU’s DG Ingrid Delentre ask the Romanian prime minister Dacian Ciolos for an “urgent intervention” to save Televizinea Romana (TVR) from complete financial collapse.
She added that EBU had done all it can to reschedule the €15 million it is still owed by the broadcaster but now the crisis at TVR cannot be ignored any longer and urgent decisions need to be taken about its future.
An equally serious situation exists in BiH, where the public broadcaster BHRT is also facing the prospect of financial collapse. In this instance, the EBU has written to key decision makers in Brussels calling for joint action to save the station.
Public service broadcasting is clearly facing challenges in a number of CEE countries and the EBU should be commended for trying to address them.
