At a time when South Africa’s controversial draft Bill on public service broadcasting has raised issues on how the SABC should be funded, the European Broadcast Union has urged all decision-makers in Poland to provide appropriate, secure and transparent funding for its public service broadcasters.
The alarming drop in licence fee revenue in Poland over recent years, coupled with a change of policy on who should pay the licence fee, means insufficient financing for public service media in the country.
“Urgent measures are required to stabilise the public funding of Poland’s public service media, and in particular through improvements to the system of licence fee collection and compensation from the State budget for the shortfalls,’ said EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot.
The current situation in Poland is not in line with the standards established by the Council of Europe, in particular the 1996 Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers on the guarantee of the independence of public service broadcasting and the 2009 Recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly on the funding of public service broadcasting. Whereas the first Recommendation regards as a prerequisite for independence an appropriate, secure and transparent funding framework which guarantees public service broadcasting organisations the means necessary to accomplish their missions, the latter Recommendation calls on national legislators to ensure that public service broadcasters have adequate long-term funding possibilities for fulfilling their mission.
“Properly-funded public service media are a vital bedrock of every democratic society in Europe,” concluded Philippot.
