STA, 12 March 2021 - Radio Študent has avoided losing the funding from the University of Ljubljana's Student Organisation (ŠOU) entirely, but says that the EUR 84,000 it will receive for this year nevertheless represents only 70% of last year's sum from ŠOU's budget, which will not be enough for the radio station to function smoothly.
The small independent radio station was at risk of losing funding from the organisation altogether as the first draft of the budget of its founder ŠOU, adopted in early January, envisaged no funds for Radio Študent.
The new version of the budget, adopted yesterday, sees EUR 84,000 earmarked for the radio station, which its the management and editorial board said today posed a threat of serious consequences.
A cut from last year's EUR 120,000, the sum is not sufficient for Radio Študent to function normally, as the core journalist activities, the training programme and many other radio projects will be severely hampered.
Radio Študent added that there were no quick solutions to compensate for the budget cut and that the "development plans for the radio will have to give way to innovative survival strategies due to the reduction of funding by the founder".
The management expects struggle for survival and says it would need to work hard to preserve independence and financial stability of the station, whose survival has been demanded by "almost the entire relevant public home and abroad".
Radio Študent added that the financing problem did not stem from the current financial situation of the founder, but that it was "planned destruction and disciplining of the media outlet that does not bow to the ruling student elite".
Funding of the radio station, launched in 1969, has been on decline for almost a decade. In 2012 it received EUR 230,000, but only EUR 120,000 last year when, during the Covid-29 epidemic, the radio station intensified its reporting and programmes.
The radio station has more than 200 young contributors, who make 17 hours of live radio shows a day.
