Minister vows not to weaken Iceland’s public broadcaster

Culture, innovation and higher education minister Logi Einarsson says he will not weaken public broadcaster RÚV by removing it from the advertising market. The government is considering changes to a planned cap on RÚV’s advertising revenue after receiving comments on a media bill, he told parliament on Tuesday, according to mbl.is.

The remarks came during an impromptu question session with Bryndís Haraldsdóttir, an MP for the Independence Party. She described the state of Icelandic media as bleak, noting that one of the country’s two television newsrooms had recently closed after 40 years.

Haraldsdóttir argued that the proposed changes to RÚV’s law would not address the main problem facing privately run media: competition with a public broadcaster that receives about 7 billion Icelandic krónur in public funding and nearly 3 billion in advertising revenue. She said the proposed 2.8 billion króna cap was unlikely to have much effect because RÚV’s advertising income had not exceeded that amount in the past four years.

She asked whether tighter limits on RÚV’s advertising sales would be more effective and whether planned additional funding for private media would be on top of the 850 million krónur in support previously announced.

Einarsson said the government aimed to more than double support for privately run media. He argued that weakening domestic media was not the answer as international technology companies gained ground in Iceland’s advertising market. He also said mixed funding was common for public broadcasters in Europe and that they should not rely on a single source of income.

The ministry is reviewing comments on the proposed advertising cap, including a submission from Sýn, Einarsson said. He confirmed that the planned additional funding would come on top of other support for private media.

Haraldsdóttir said she had proposed in 2023, alongside a majority of parliament’s general and education committee, that RÚV’s advertising department be abolished. She said the proposal would not remove RÚV entirely from the advertising market, but would end what she called its aggressive advertising sales. She also criticized the ministry’s handling of the new bill, referring to a European Broadcasting Union report cited during its preparation and to Sýn’s statement that it had requested the report.