Politicians want to eliminate the mandatory fee paid for state TV

Couple days ago, the main Romanian opposition party, PSD, announced, through the voice of its president Victor Ponta, that it will initiate a project of law in order to eliminate the mandatory subscription for the state TV, because “it turned into Presidency’s and Government’s TV”.

“Unfortunately, the Romanian State TV is not a TV for Romanians anymore, but a TV owned by the Government and Presidency. It is incorrect that each and every citizen that pays for cable TV (…) to be forced to pay from his own pocket for a TV that delivers, unfortunately, propaganda for the Presidency and Government”, Ponta said, according to Mediafax.

Although Ponta’s arguments come because of the political rivalry with the party ruling now the country and were justified by the was a Romanian poet’s death was covered by the State TV, the problem of State TV’s financing is one that searches for a solution for years.

In Romania, the cable operators offer in their packages all the State TV channels, perceiving taxes from their clients. Which clients are charged double for these channels, as they have to pay, included in their electricity bill, also subscription for state TV and radio, no matter if they use them or not.

Regarding PSD’s proposal, the State TV said, in a press release, that “it considers that renouncing the TV tax will make unsustainable the mission of the Public Television to educate and inform the public opinion in an equidistant way, not being under any state power”.

According to TVR’s press release, TVR is not an exception in the European media landscape. “The multiple financing model of TVR – that also includes the TV tax – can be found also in most of the public TVs in Europe, members of European Broadcasting Union. State Televisions that do not have as a financing source a TV tax or a solidarity tax are supported by the governments in their countries and aren’t subject to as many limitations as Romanian State TV”.