The radio-TV license fee under debate
A debate on the radio-TV license fee, staged by the Presidential Administration, was held on Thursday.
România Internațional, 11.11.2016, 13:30
The radio and TV license fee and the status of the two public media institutions were discussed on Thursday by Romanias President Klaus Iohannis, civil society representatives and journalists. President Iohannis wanted to know the experts opinion on this matter given that he will have to decide whether to promulgate or not the law that that annuls 101 taxes, including the radio and TV license fee.
The head of state would have endorsed the law had not the radio-TV license fee been among the ones to be cancelled. In his opinion, the latter cannot be eliminated through an emergency procedure, without a thorough debate and the consultation of the two institutions Boards. In the public sphere this matter may be perceived as a technical one, but its not like that at all, President Iohannis has stated. In his opinion, a distinction should be made between state-owned radio and TV stations and public stations.
Klaus Iohannis: “The question With or without license fee? can be translated by Public radio and TV services or state-owned radio and TV services? This is a fundamental difference that has very much to do with the way in which we want to build Romania. We either want state-owned TV and radio services or public TV and radio services, for the public.”
In turn, the representative of ActiveWatch media-monitoring agency Razvan Martin believes that the law on the functioning of the two media institutions needs to be reviewed after a thorough public debate. Razvan Martin:
“ActiWatch believes that no financing mechanism, irrespective of how advantageous it may be to the two media institutions, should be implemented without the existence of legal guarantees on how the two institutions resources are to be managed, in order to avoid situations such as the one the public television is facing now.”
On the other hand, the Social Democratic Party leader Liviu Dragnea, who initiated this law, was not invited to take part in the debate. Unsatisfied with the situation, he has sent President Iohannis a letter in which he emphasizes, among other things, that funding the two media institutions exclusively from the state budget does not trigger a decrease in the funds allotted to them. Dragnea also says that the management of the radio and TV services must be depoliticized and rendered professional, so that editorial independence is guaranteed.
However, President Klaus Iohannis has to decide by November 15 if he signs into law the bill that cancels over one hundred taxes, the radio and TV license fee included. According to pundits, this law, alongside the pay rises for healthcare and education employees recently endorsed by Parliament, are part of the so-called pork-barrel politics usually promoted before elections.
