Radio Television of Kosovo
Type | Radio, television and online |
---|---|
TV stations | |
Radio stations | Radio Kosova 1 Radio Kosova 2 |
Headquarters | Pristina, Kosovo |
Broadcast area | Worldwide |
Owner | Government of Kosovo |
Key people | Shkumbin Ahmetxhekaj |
Launch date | 1945 (radio) 1974 (as RTP) 1992 (as RTS P) 1999 (as RTK) |
Former names | Radio Televizioni i Prishtinës/Radio Televizija Prishtina |
Official website | www.rtklive.com |
Radio Television of Kosovo (
History
RTK replaced
In 2001, RTK was established as an independent public service broadcaster by a
In 2002, at which time it was broadcasting 15 hours a day, 35% of the station's broadcasts were produced externally, with the bulk of programming local. It included news and business coverage as well as farming information. Broadcasting remained multilingual, with programming in another language (the Romani language magazine “Yekhipe") beginning in September 2003. On 22 December of that year, the station began broadcasting 24 hours a day. Also in 2002, RTK began hosting awards, with the best news moderator being honored by the "Drita Germizaj" award and the best cameraman by the "Rudolf Sopi" award.
RTK's radio transmission began with the October 1999 acquisition of the multilingual public radio station "Radio Prishtina", which became "Radio Kosovo". In 2000, it acquired the multi-ethnic UN youth radio station Radio Blue Sky.
In 2013, RTK introduced a new logo and a newly corporate identity for the first time of 14 years since 1999. By that, the grey-coloured 1-numeral along with the red letter R, the white letter T, and the yellow letter K are all replaced by something brand new that is the RTK wordmark which is coloured blue, but it has the letter K being put inside a half square. At the same time, RTK's TV services were expanded to include a channel called RTK 2, which is intended to focus on minorities, and with it, all minority language programming were moved from RTK 1 to RTK 2.[1]
By 2014, RTK saw the launch of two new stations such as RTK 3 which is a news channel and RTK 4 which is an arts and documentary channel.
Journalists at RTK have repeatedly protested in 2015 against political interference, up to asking for the dismissal of chief editors for obstruction and internal censorship.[2]
Management
RTK is regulated by the Law on Public Broadcasting. Its financing was originally guaranteed by a license fee paid over electricity bill, until the Constitutional Court declared that it was not due[3] and shifted RTK's budget over state subsidy (0.7% of Kosovo's budget). The change raised concerns for the preservation of RTK's independence. The legal requirement for RTK to plan an end to the transitional state budget funding has not been enacted.[4]: 33 [5]
RTK has been criticised for lack of investigative journalism and political bias, e.g. in the extensive coverage of the ruling political party (including the annual meeting of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo) as opposed to the short and misleading coverage of opposition Vetëvendosje 2012 protests, which was deemed "a major signal of state financing putting the editorial independence of public television at risk" (IREX, 2013b). Moreover, RTK coverage only reaches 62.7% of Kosovo's territory[6]
RTK Board members are elected by the Parliament by majority vote, thus entrusting their appointment to the majority parties. Political pressures aside, RTK maintains an untapped potential thanks to good equipment and professional editors and journalists.[4]: 33
See also
Notes
- ^ Formerly spelled Radio Televizioni i Kosovës.
References
- ^ Sennitt, Andy (2009-03-20). "EBU renews service agreement with RTK Kosovo". medianetwork. Archived from the original on 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, 13 January 2016
- ^ Decision of the Constitutional Court on the temporary measure Case KI 11/09, Tomë Krasniqi vs. RTK et al[permanent dead link]. Complete text of the Decision.
- ^ a b Elda Brogi, Alina Dobreva, and Pier Luigi Parcu, "Freedom of Media in the Western Balkans", Archived 19 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine, study for the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, October 2014, EXPO/B/DROI/2013/16
- ^ RTK Financial Sustainability, Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine, GAP Policy Brief
- ^ Independent Media Commission of Kosovo (2013), Annual Report for 2012[permanent dead link]
External links