Why publically funded radio and television is important.

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Source:pxhere.com CC0



Germany has a Rundfunkbeitrag; Austria the Haushaltsabgabe and the Swiss have their Serafe. In many countries, citizens are required to contribute to the public broadcasters in the form of a monthly or yearly fee. This fee is, in most cases, around €10 per month. In most cases, the money is used to solely finance the public broadcaster.

While some may not agree with having to pay this fee, I think it is an important cornerstone of any democracy in that it keeps the broadcaster in public hands. Take, for example, Hungary: there, the public broadcaster is state funded and, as a result, Magyar Televízio is often accused of being a mouthpiece for President Urban’s Fidesz Party. As a consequence, journalists at MTV fear that if they do not follow the party political line, they may loose their job or worse.

On the opposite end of the scale, news broadcasters like Fox News and Sky News are often accused of being biased and sensationalist. In my opinion, this is because there is a large amount of competition between news channels and in order to attract more viewers, editors are tempted to make news seem more dramatic. Sometimes they tweak their reporting to appeal to (and retain) their current viewership.

Non-publically funded news channels, are funded by advertising. If a story comes up that could show one of the advertisers in a bad light, they may pull their advertising resulting in significant financial loss. Or, it could be that the advertiser has strong relationship with the station management and could influence stories that portray them favourably.

Publically funded television and radio is important since it ensures journalists can report without fear of interference from the government or any political party.



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