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European Broadcasting Union “The EBU urges all decision-makers to provide appropriate, secure and transparent funding for Poland's public service broadcasters and to guarantee the means necessary for them to accomplish their mission,” said the EBU President, Jean-Paul Philippot of RTBF, Belgium. 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 stabilize 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”, added Mr 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 organizations 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," said Mr Philippot. Note to Editors: *European Broadcasting Union (EBU) The EBU serves 125 national media organizations from 56 countries in and around Europe. It represents its Members and promotes the values and distinctiveness of public service media in Europe and around the world. The Eurovision and Euroradio networks deliver news, sports, events and music to EBU Members and other media organizations. Services to Members range from legal advice, technical standardization and development to co-production and exchange of quality European content. For more information about the EBU: www.ebu.ch Contact: |
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