Bosnian parliament will today host a public debate on the possible transformation of the country’s public radio-television service, after Croat MPs proposed that the country should also get a Croat TV station.

Critics say the request comes at a sensitive time, feeding heightened ethnic tensions in the country and some even believe there may be ulterior motives behind the proposal in that it could mean the creation of a public broadcasting system that is controlled by the major national political parties.

Bosnia’s people mainly belong to three ethnic groups, but the country has only two semi-autonomous territorial entities – Republika Srpska, mainly populated by Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is shared by the most numerous group of the three, Bosniaks, and the smallest, Croats. It also has three public TV stations – state TV, BHTV, Federation TV in the Federation entity and RTRS in Republika Srpska .

However, the General Council of the Croatian National Congress of Bosnia and Herzegovina, HNS, an umbrella organization for a number of Bosnian Croat parties, last Friday published a proposal including two models.