RTK's independent union: We will address the Constitutional Court for arbitrary cutting of public broadcaster's budget

“The unwillingness of all Kosovo Assembly legislatures as the founder of RTK, to find over the years a stable and independent model of funding, has left Kosovo Radiotelvision 26 years after the founding, property and non-functional object, in extremely inadequate and dignified conditions”, said in response.

The Union's full response:

Kosovo's Independent Radio Television Union expresses deep concern over Kosovo's burdened financial situation in Radio Television. Failure to consider the second quarter of 2025 means by responsible institutions and arbitrary budget cuts contrary to the RTK law are seriously jeopardising RTK's functioning and the well-being of its employees.

The RTK law clearly defines RTK's financing at a score of 0.7% of the total state budget (recognition of one-way revenues), but RTK also for 2025, has been allocated only about 8.9m euros, which is obviously below the minimum needed for sustainable and independent functioning. Moreover, even these insufficient tools have not yet been divided according to annual planning (two times a year), heavily burdening the functioning of the public broadcaster.

Despite the Union's insistences, the issue of the arbitration of RTK's budget should be addressed to the Constitutional Court, the last board and management, as well as some of them that continue to be part of the current management, showed no willingness and courage to search for in the highest instance, the return of the budget as defined with the RTK law, thus proving once again a lack of responsibility for the managerial management, the resistance to politics.

The RTK Independent Union will soon address the Constitutional Court regarding the arbitrary cuts in the public broadcaster's budget, and will strongly engage in planning the state budget for 2026, RTK returns to the guaranteed budget under the RTK law.

The unwillingness of all Kosovo Assembly legislatures as the founder of RTK, to find over the years a stable and independent model of funding, has left Kosovo Radio Television 26 years after the establishment, no property and no functional targets, in extremely inappropriate and dignified conditions.

Compared to public televisions in the region, RTK has the lowest budget and the lowest number of workers, and remains the only public broadcaster without property and without independent and sustainable financing.

To illustrate, these are some of the annual public television budgets in the region:

• RT US (Albania): around $27 million
• MRT (Northern Macedonia) around $20m
• RTCG (Montenegro): around $17m
• HRT (Croatia), about $180 million
• RT V SLO (Slovenia) About 130 million dollars
• RTS (Serbia) About $110 million, etc.

For a long period of time, employees in RTK have not enjoyed salary increases, as has been done in most other public institutions and despite inflation, even this year (2025), when all employees in state and public institutions in the country have obtained a 110-euro salary increase.

RTK's independent union called on all responsible institutions to make immediate access to tools from the budget voted in the Kosovo Assembly and reflect on the overall financial situation at Kosovo Radio Television.

RTK's Independent Trade Union vows that it will use all syndical actions available and constitutionally guaranteed legal ways, that the fundamental right of employees, that of wage, is due to the work done to be enjoyed overall.

Respectfully:

Headship of RTK Independent Trade Union