Public service broadcaster in Kosovo that is a subject of this report is Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK). RTK Law (2012) requires content pluralism from the public broadcaster, taking into account the needs of all segments of the public for news, cultural, educational, sport and entertainment programs as it is provisioned by Article 7 of the above mentioned Law.

 

Article 7 specifies that “obligations of the public service of RTK regarding the content, channels and services offered by it specifically should include the following: 1.1. promoting a culture of civic dialogue and providing a wide arena for public discussion; 1.2. providing a content of high quality that offers information on events in the country, in cross-border areas, in Europe and in the world; 1.3. providing educational content of a high quality; 1.4. providing cultural content of a high quality; 1.5. production of drama programs; 1.6. providing domestic television products of high quality for children, teenagers and elders; 1.7. providing entertaining content of high quality for all ages; 1.8. realization of constitutional rights of Serb community and other national communities regarding the provision of public information and distribution of the content offered by RTK; 1.9. inclusion of cultural achievements and other achievements of Serb community and other communities in national radio channels and national television contents in Albanian language; 1.10. in accordance with international treaties and in cooperation with radio television broadcastings corporations of other countries, provides support for creation and development of cross border projects for radio, television and other projects; 1.11. providing content for sense disabled persons, by using adaptable technologies for their needs; 1.12. particular attention shall be paid to the persons with disabilities in terms of programs and information delivery; 6 1.13. particular attention shall be paid to the children and family; 1.14. presentation and promotion of Kosovo culture, cultural creativity and free artistic expression; 1.15. presentation and promotion of science; 1.16. particular attention should be paid to the social position and activities of the registered religious communities; 1.17. particular attention should be paid to the history and identity of Kosovo and its country in international arena, and promotion of universal cooperation, understanding and knowledge of histories, cultures and identities;” etc.

 

 

Section 2 of Article 7 specifies that “within the structure of content, channels and services provided by RTK as a part of public service performance, RTK should dedicate a large proportion of time of weekly broadcasting in every channel or other service for cultural, artistic, information, documentary or educational content.” It is fair to say that RTK has made significant efforts to fulfill these obligations regarding content pluralism. Special attention was paid to the needs of the Serbian and other ethnic minorities in Kosovo. RTK2 is a Serbian language channel. 

 

The law stipulates that editorial policy of RTK “shall be independent, fair, professional, objective, balanced and impartial” (Article 18). However, there is widespread perception both in general public and in media community that RTK is far from independent. For example, the findings of the survey  “Media indicators 2015” reveal that the overwhelming majority of 175 journalists interviewed for that project believe that “the public broadcaster is not independent or unbiased from political interventions.” In total, 75 percent of them believe that RTK is not independent, with 55 percent thinking that “the public broadcaster is ‘not at all’ independent” and 20 percent believe it is “not independent up to certain level“. 

 

Furthermore, during the first four months of 2015, dozens of RTK journalists and editors have been voicing their dissatisfaction and protest against the situation in public broadcaster. The Independent Trade Union of RTK (SPRTK) organized public protest in front of the RTK building, while 60 journalists and editors in the letter of 3 March 2015 sent to the RTK Board and also to the Reporters Without Borders accused RTK management for censorship, propaganda and bias in favour of the ruling party (PDK) and for making news according to orders by leaders of that party. In support to their claims these editors and journalists listed several cases of censorship of stories that were seen as anti-PDK by RTK management.

 

 

Provisions of the RTK law require transparent and democratic process of selection of the RTK Board. In practice, independent candidates, although proposed by civil society organizations, never get selected. The board is selected by those who dominate the parliament. During the last several years PDK, as a ruling party, used every opportunity to install its people in boards of public companies and independent institutions. RTK is not an exception. Its board also seems to be dominated by people affiliated to PDK.

 

 

RTK is currently funded by the Kosovo budget. According to the Law on Radio Television of Kosovo, “for the transitional three-year period, until the solution of funding through subscription, RTK will be allocated 0.7 percent of income from the Kosovo Budget annually”. Having in mind that the RTK law entered into force in March 2012, the three year transitional period has already expired, while efforts to find adequate solution for funding of PSB are still going on. In 2014, this was 9.348 million EUR. With more than 2 million EUR from advertising and other income, the RTK total budget in 2014 was 11.676 million EUR. 

 

It seems that funding through subscription/licence fee paid by households is not an option for the time being since there isn't efficient solution for collection of such a fee. Therefore, continuation of funding of RTK from the Kosovo budget remains a pragmatic and acceptable option for both – the present RTK management and the Government/Assembly of Kosovo. In the comment to the draft version of the new law, the RTK management is requiring 1.5 percent of Kosovo budget to be allocated to the public broadcaster annually. This proposal is justified by the enlargement of the RTK operations to three new channels (Serbian language RTK2, news channel RTK3 and education, culture and sports channel RTK4) and by the needs for investments for digitalisation.

 

 

Present way of funding from the Kosovo budget (that might continue in future if reinforced by the expected changes of the RTK Law) is providing financial sustainability for RTK. However, from the perspective of independent editorial policy of PSB, it is not the best solution. Having in mind political and financial pressures that RTK has been experiencing during last several years, it is expected that continuing funding from Kosovo budget will be further used for political instrumentalisation of the public broadcaster in Kosovo.

Every year RTK submits its annual report together with financial report to the Assembly of Kosovo. Also, internal and external auditing of its financial activities are conducted yearly. RTK is obliged to publish its annual reports and other relevant documents on its activities. However, the last annual report published on its website is that for year 2010. Annual reports for 2013 and 2014 have not been approved by Assembly of Kosovo yet.

 

RTK has its own code of ethics – Professional and Ethical Standards. Journalists are obliged to respect provisions of this document. However, according to the journalists’ complaints and protests, the present RTK management doesn’t pay much attention to these professional and ethical standards. In 2015, RTK has started with regular periodic measurement of public trust. These surveys are commissioned by RTK for its internal needs. Although according to the law RTK should also have the Public Advisory Group in its governing and supervising structure (Article 36), this body representing the public has not been appointed by the RTK Board yet.

 

 

Digitalisation of RTK and other broadcasters was initially planned for June 2015. However, the process of technological preparations and drafting of the legislation havs been lagging. Lack of sufficient funds, capacities and expertise on the side of broadcasters as well as lack of adequate understanding and attention by the state bodies made this process quite controversial and problematic. In 2008, the regulator IMC initiated public discussion for preparing Kosovo strategy on digitalisation, including organisation of two international conferences in Pristina on this issue (in 2009 and 2012). In 2012, a draft of Kosovo strategy on digitalisation was submitted to the Government. In 2013, the Kosovo Government returned it to the IMC for improvements. The last version of the Kosovo strategy on digitalisation was submitted to Government in March 2015. Simultaneously, the process of drafting the law on digitalisation has been ongoing. Since work on the law has been organized without having the approved strategy on digitalisation, these two processes (drafting of the strategy and the law) have been going on without sufficient coordination.

 

 

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Note: This report is produced in May 2015 by the SEE Media Observatory as a contribution to the 2015 assessment of two results – independent and professional regulators, and public service media –  elaborated in the Guidelines for EU support to media freedom and media integrity in enlargement countries, 2014-2020. The content of the assessment follows the indicators included in the EU Guidelines. See the overview of the indicators for independent and professional regulators and for public service media, as elaborated in the EU Guidelines here.