The countries of the Western Balkans share a unique history. Yet there is little comparative research about their media systems, media policies and media organizations, including the transformation and prospects of public service broadcasting (PSB). This gap is exactly why we, together with scholars from the respective countries, started a research project investigating the regulation and
operation of PSB in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Moreover, we invited scholars from all over Europe to think about PSB and media policy in the region.

The agenda for transition after the demise of communism in the Western Balkans made the conversion of state radio and television into public service broadcasters a priority, converting mouthpieces of the regime into public forums in which various interests and standpoints could be shared and deliberated. There is general agreement that this endeavor has not been a success. Formally, the countries adopted the legal and institutional requirements of public service media according to European standards. The ruling political elites, however, retained their control over the public media by various means.

Can this trend be reversed? Instead of being marginalized or totally manipulated, can public service media become vehicles of genuine democratization?

Taking a comparative perspective, it provides a comprehensive overview of the role, prospects, and challenges of PSB in the Western Balkans and tries to make a contribution to our understanding of the transformation of media systems and media democratization in a region that took a distinct path of development with outcomes that differ from other post-communist states.