RAK[1] 

Enforcement Panel2                                                                                      Annex 9

02-07-4790-5/04

 Decision

22 December , 2004

Radio Posušje (136R)

I    Introduction

1.      Radio Posušje is a public broadcaster. It broadcasts in Mostar and Livno region. Director of the station is Mr. Ante Miličević. The station was issued a long-term broadcasting licence  on July 2nd 2002.

II         Facts

2.      On August 9th 2004, Monitoring team of the Communications Regulatory Agency (hereinafter: the Agency) has performed measuring at the broader area of Mostar. It was determined at the time that Radio Posušje does not broadcasting its programme at 88.50 MHz frequency, in accordance with the technical annex 3 – 136R201 – Location Grude.

3.      On October 5th 2004, the Agency sent a letter requesting the station to provide the reasons for not broadcasting their programme. The station submitted its response on October 11th 2004.  

III       Allegations

4.      It is alleged that Radio Posušje is in breach of Annex 2- General Terms and Conditions of the Long-term Broadcasting Licence, Article 10.3.

IV      Station's Response

5.      On October 11th 2004,  the station among other stated the main reason preventing them to commence broadcasting from location Grude – annex 3, 136R201, frequency 88.50, was lack of financial assets to be provided by Municipal Council of Posušje, as the founder. Additionally, the station emphasised that newly elected Leadership of Posušje have promised funds for the equipment to be purchased.

6.      On December 14th 2004, the station sent a letter reiterating aforementioned statements.

IV      Reasoning

7.   Annex 2 – General Terms and Conditions of the Long-term Broadcasting Licence, Article 10.3 inter alia, states:

“10.3 The Licensee must begin the scheduled broadcast operations specified in the licence application within 90 days from the date when CRA issues a broadcast licence, unless CRA specifically grants a written extension of this period.  Failure to comply with this requirement may result in forfeiture of the licence”.

8.   Article 10.3 of the Annex 2 –General Terms and Conditions of the Long-Term Licence clearly states that station must begin scheduled broadcast operations within 90 days from the date the Licence was issued. In case of Radio Posušje, the deadline to commence the programme at 88.50 MHz frequency (Annex 136R201) was October 2003. The station failed to comply with the given deadline and it is found in breach of Article 10.3 of Annex 2 – General Terms and Conditions of the Licence. Aside from that, the station failed to use opportunity, set under the same article, to request a possible extension of the deadline. It was done after the Agency sent a letter to the station to answer on allegations.

9.      Considering the nature of the violation of General Terms and Conditions of the Licence, than the period of over one year the station was supposed to begin scheduled broadcast operations according to Terms and Conditions of the Licence, as well as the requirement of the Agency to make a final database of used frequency resources as an obligation in sense of efficient use of radio frequency spectrum, the Agency considers termination of Annex 3 – 136R201 as an appropriate sanction.

V      Conclusion

10.   Hereby, Radio Posušje is revoked the technical annex 3 – 136R201 of the Long-Term Broadcasting Licence.

11.    This decision may be appealed in accordance with article 49 (2) of the Law on Communications, to the Council of RAK, within 15 days from receipt of this Decision.

12.   In accordance with article 49 (2) of the Law on Communications, this decision is effective immediately.

___________________

Jakob Finci

Chairman               

   ________________________

  Gorana Ivković

  Secretary

[1] On 21 October 2002, the High Representative passed the Decision on regulating various matters of a transitional nature arising out of previous Decisions of the High Representative and Enacting the Law on Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Law on Communications was published in the BiH Official Gazette (No 33/02) on 12 November 2002, and is in force as of 20 November 2002. The Law was later adopted by the BiH Parliament and published in the BiH Official Gazette (No 31/03).

2 Pursuant to the Article 49, para 2 of the Communications Law, the Enforcement Panel shall be empowered to deal with any cases concerning violation of licence conditions and rules promulgated by the Agency and to impose appropriate remedies and sanctions.