Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 26, 2026
3 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBosnia’s state broadcaster BHRT halted programmes to protest a funding crisis tied to unpaid licence fees. Mounting debt and political gridlock raise shutdown risks and could hinder Bosnia’s EU bid.
BELGRADE, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Bosnia’s state broadcaster BHRT shut down its programmes on Thursday in protest at a funding crisis that it said could close the TV and radio service that was meant to unify the country after years of war.
It broadcast a black screen with a short statement reading: "This is not a malfunction. This is a warning about potential shutdown of the BHRT."
A final closure would leave Bosnia as Europe’s only country without a national broadcaster at a time when it is preparing for national elections in October and still struggling with post-war ethnic divisions.
The broadcaster's bank account was empty, BHRT deputy director Lejla A. Babovic told private N1 TV. "As of tomorrow we will not be able to plan our activities," she said. It needed a loan which it would repay by suing its debtors, she added.
BHRT employs about 700 people and broadcasts news, politics, films and art shows across the country.
Postwar Bosnia’s two autonomous regions - the Serb Republic and the Federation shared by Croats and Bosniaks - run their own broadcasters funded by licence fees added to electricity bills.
Half of those fees should finance BHRT under a system set up after the 1990s war with international support to unify three wartime ethnic broadcasters and curb nationalist rhetoric.
But Serb and Croat nationalist parties have long opposed a single state broadcaster.
The Serb Republic’s broadcaster, RTRS, has stopped transferring fees to BHRT since 2017, despite nearly a dozen court rulings, racking up debt of more than 104 million Bosnian marka ($62.96 million).
Many Croats in the Federation also refuse to pay licence fees.
BHRT owes around 100 million Bosnian marka for expenses including services by other media and benefits for employees, its accounts show.
Earlier this month, the head of the European Union delegation to Bosnia, Luigi Soreca, said on X that the collapse of BHRT would represent a major setback for the country's candidacy for joining the bloc.
Sarajevo-based journalist Najra Krvavac said its collapse "would be a devastating and final proof of a lack of care for an integral part of the country’s identity".
Others said the broadcaster's significance was fading as its audience aged and streaming services attracted younger viewers.
"If it stops broadcasting, the damage would be mainly symbolic," Omer Hasic, a 56-year-old clerk from Sarajevo, said. "Younger people are not into TV any more, everything is on internet."
In November, BHRT went on air from an improvised tent studio in bitter winter cold outside parliament, urging the government to prevent its collapse in what it called a "final warning".
($1 = 1.6519 marka)
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Bosnia’s state broadcaster BHRT halted programmes to protest a severe funding crisis driven by years of unpaid licence fees and political deadlock that threaten a full shutdown.
Under Bosnia’s funding model, licence fees should be shared with BHRT. The RS broadcaster RTRS has withheld transfers since 2017 and fee compliance is low elsewhere, creating large debts.
A BHRT collapse would leave Bosnia without a national broadcaster, weaken media pluralism, and could harm the country’s EU accession prospects, according to EU officials.
Around 700 employees are at risk. BHRT has staged protests, including broadcasting from a tent studio, and now halted programmes as a warning over potential shutdown.
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