The Office of the High Representative welcomes the engagement of the RS Communications Minister, Dragan Solaja’s, advisory group in the PBS reforms process.
However, the OHR wants to make a number of points clear –
- First, amendments to the model laws that the three ministers accepted as the basis for reform will need to be harmonised and complementary.
- Second, any solution must build on what has been achieved so far and that the basis is one public broadcasting system for the whole of BiH, composed of three broadcasters with shared infrastructure. This is not about creating a monopoly, destroying the entity broadcasters, or centralization – but about setting up a system that can survive on its own.
- Third, European standards demand that BiH’s public broadcasting system must be independent and financially viable.
- Forth, the process of drafting the amendments to the model laws must therefore tackle the biggest problems within the PBS system; financial consolidation, improved management control and modern working practices.
There is no perfect model to simply transfer and apply in BiH. Most East European states have found that they had to deal with the same difficult issues; in each case they found solutions that match their own unique to their own unique needs.