On Sunday, Oct. 27, voters in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein approved an initiative to end funding for Radio L. This is the first time European voters have effectively abolished their public-service broadcaster.
The ballot initiative was proposed by the conservative populist party Demokraten pro Liechtenstein, which has been calling for ending state support for the station since 2018. DpL officials object to the 4.4 million Swiss francs budgeted to support the station and instead argue Radio L should be privatized.
Voters apparently agree, with 55.4% of them supporting the ballot initiative. Voter turnout was 59.3% of eligible voters. Voters in all 11 municipalities approved the referendum.
With this vote, the law authorizing the public-service broadcaster will be repealed at the end of 2025.
In a comment reported by the newspaper Landesspiegel, Radio L Board Chairman Jürg Bachmann state that the station had almost 14 months to find a new sponsor, and he made it clear the goal was to keep Radio L on the air.
In a statement following the results, the centrist Vaterländische Union, part of the ruling coalition in the Landtag, called for greater understanding of why voters approved the initiative when considering a path forward. “It will be interesting to find out the motives of those entitled to vote and why they voted the way they did. This will certainly also allow us to draw conclusions about how to give Radio L a reasonable future,” according to the statement.
The VU further affirmed its support for Radio L, including privatization efforts, “although state media funding for radio is not taboo. However, the principles of media funding in Liechtenstein must be reconsidered.”
Radio Liechtenstein was founded in 1995 as a private station, but when facing closure in 2004 the Liechtenstein took it over and converted Radio L to a public service broadcaster.
