EBU criticizes the initiative aiming to drop TV licence fee in Romania

European Broadcasting Union (EBU) urged Romanian parliamentarians to withdraw or resist the proposal regarding the abolishment of country’s TV licence fee.

An initiative regarding the abolishment of the TV licence fee paid to the state run TV was formulated by the main Romanian opposition party, PSD, around November 10th. At the moment, PSD’s president was asking the abolishment of the licence fee because the state run TV turned, as he put it, “into Presidency’s and Government’s TV”.

In a letter to the members of Romanian Parliament, EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre said it was quite evident that proposals from the country’s opposition Social Democratic Party and Conservative Party for abolition of the fee would make it impossible for TVR to carry out its role.

Based in Geneva, the EBU serves 86 national media organizations from 56 countries in and around Europe. Services to Members include legal advice, technical standardization and co-production.  The Union’s Eurovision and Euroradio networks deliver news, sports, events and music to EBU Members and other media organizations.