Instead of providing the ultimate answers this study calls for further research, debates and actions that can contribute to development of better media policies and practices.  

The major drawback for the integrity of the media sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to be related to the attempts of political elites to enable easier political interference in the media and to their indolence in regulation of media market. On the other hand, the economic environment for media is poor and unfavorable to independent and quality journalism. The problems are exacerbated without adequate policy solutions.   

In terms of media policies, the research results indicate they are (under)developed to the point that reflects the interests of political elites. The political elites have been mostly indolent with regard to media policies, which leaves some areas of media policies unregulated, most of all concentration of ownership over media. Some of the recent initiatives seemed to have been aimed at distorting previous regulations for the sake of easier political control. Recently changed procedure of appointments of the members of Council in the Communication Regulatory Agency, as well as the members of the Governing board of public service broadcaster RTRS enables greater political control over the appointments and the future functioning of these bodies. Some disturbing initiatives however failed - the proposed changes of the Freedom of Information Act that would limit the transparency of public information, as well as the attempt to, contrary to stipulated procedures, appoint new members of Governing Board of public broadcaster FTV. The fact that the initiatives failed after a strong reactions by the professional community, civil sector and the international community brings hopes that the appetites of those in power can be balanced in the similar fashion in the future as well.

The results of the research point to a conclusion that media ownership needs to be addressed better at the level of media policies. The legislative limitations of foreign ownership over media are not efficient since it allows for practically unlimited indirect foreign ownership (such as in the case of Al Jazeera Balkans, press agency Anadolu, or TV OBN). The transparency of the media ownership is also limited.  It is partly assured through the process of court registration, but the full information is not easily accessible – online registry at www.pravosudje.ba is valuable but does not include ownership over businesses from Republika Srpska. Transparency of ownership is especially obscured when it comes to online media, which are sometimes not even registered as the media businesses and do not always publish contact information. There are indicators that the majority of media are in part affiliated with political elites, and for example the respondents of this research mentioned few online media that are suspected to be in fact run by the political parties. Finally, no limitations of the concentration of ownership exist for several years now, which makes another open risk for media integrity.  

The media market is highly impoverished due to financial crisis, retraction of donors, low level of the collection of the RTV fees, as well as because of the outflow of advertising revenues to foreign markets. The fact that the number of media however remains practically unchanged in the past decade brings serious doubts that the sources of revenues for these media are compromised. Government financing raises many concerns. Significant part of broadcasters are directly financed from the budgets of municipal and cantonal governments (12 public TV stations and 62 public radio stations – out of overall 44 TV and 120 radio stations), or the government funding is provided through subsidies and donations (like in the case of Government of Republika Srpska). The rationale for such financing is suspicious, due to the lack of transparency of the selection procedures and the criteria. Moreover, there are no assurances and monitoring of the public interest benefits of such financing. The media receiving these funds are considered deprived of the power to criticize political elites. In the same way, the advertising practices of public companies affiliated with political parties, which are at the same time major advertisers are considered instrumentals for achieving the political goals and/or personal gains. On top of all this, in the previous year the controversies with regard to system of TV audience measurement indicated that there was a struggle for power in this regard.  The representatives of advertising industry and media raise concerns that the TV measurement is going to be instrumentalized based on the interests of the most powerful actors in the media sector in BiH.

Public service broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina constitutes the most complicated system in the region (with three separate broadcasters), burdened with many problems. The most obvious one is the lack of political will to establish the common corporation of public service broadcasters (which would rationalize the system and lead the digitalization process). The related one is the political instrumentalisation, reflected in the procedures of appointment of managing structures and more-or-less visible political bias (mostly with regard to two entity broadcasters). And thirdly, the financial issues involve the low collection of RTV fees (especially among the Croat ethnic group, based on the claim they are underrepresented in PSB). On the other hand, there are major concerns about the commercialization of PSB given that they hold high shares in advertising revenues (especially RTV FBiH) and to some extent operate as commercial business. The programmatic schemes are also considered to some extent commercialized thus seriously jeopardizing the public service role of these broadcasters.

And finally, the media and journalists are discouraged to engage in relevant critical journalism due to low socio-economic status, existential uncertainty and lack of opportunities for alternative employment, lack of institutional support, collective organizing and the support of civil society organizations, and finally the belief that investigative journalism in the country cannot incite social changes.

The positive examples in all these areas remain exceptions, with only rare media empowered to critique political and economic elites. In sum, media integrity is not assured on a systematic level.  Key elements of media integrity are not solved, with several major patterns of political and economic interference. All this calls for a strategic approach and active engagement of both institutions and civil sector in order to balance particular interests.
The study on media integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina provides an extensive overview of major issues to be taken into account, also providing guidelines for future actions. Instead of providing the ultimate answers it also calls for further research, debates and actions that can contribute to development of better media policies and practices.  

The complete study on media integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found here.