Member of the European Parliament, representative of the Swedish party Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Karin Karlsbro proposed to exclude Belteleradiocompany (BTRK) from the European Broadcasting Union.

If the initiative is supported by the EBU, Belarus will lose the right to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Carlsbro has started collecting signatures of members of the European Parliament.

Subsequently, the signatures will be attached to the letter addressed to the European Broadcasting Union.

The politician described her position on Facebook in more detail, in a post with an appeal "Do not allow Belarus to participate in Eurovision!" 

"The state TV channel BTRK, which usually broadcasts Eurovision in Belarus, took an active part in the state repression faced by Belarusians, and the head of the channel, Ivan Eismont, is on the sanctions list that the EU published last year," the MP said.

On the official website of Carlsbro, there is a quote calling to sever business ties with the channel.

“It is clear that other European media companies should stop all cooperation,” she said.

In social networks, Karin Carlsbro also called for attention to the situation of media workers in the country.

According to her, more than a hundred employees of the BTRK lost their jobs, several people ended up in prison.

“Participation of such a TV company in such a solemn event as Eurovision is unacceptable.

The EBU must demonstrate its position on this case and remove the armored personnel carrier from participation in the competition, "Carlsbro concluded.

Earlier, the Belarusian Cultural Solidarity Foundation tried to deprive the TV company of the right to participate in the competition.

With the corresponding request, the fund employees contacted the management of the European Broadcasting Union.

In a reply letter, however, it was reported that the EBU opposes the use of Eurovision for political purposes.

“As the European professional association of public media, the European Broadcasting Union is firmly committed to protecting the freedom of speech and the values ​​of public media, including their independence and accountability ... I also want to emphasize that Eurovision is a music competition with no political agenda.

We consistently and resolutely oppose the desire to use this cultural event for political purposes, ”said in a letter signed by the Director General of the European Broadcasting Union, Noel Curran. 

At the same time, Curran stressed that the organization is monitoring the situation in the country.

“We continue to closely monitor the difficult situation in the Belarusian media sphere and strongly condemn the police attacks on local and foreign journalists covering civil protests after the presidential elections,” the EBU said.

Who skipped Eurovision

Contestants were suspended or refused to participate in Eurovision for a variety of reasons.

In 2005, Lebanese musicians were planning to debut at the competition.

The company in charge of broadcasting the show on local television decided to replace the Israeli singer with an advertisement.

The organizers of the competition did not agree to this, and Lebanon refused to participate in the competition.

In 2009, musicians from Georgia were at the center of the scandal.

They planned to present a song containing statements against Russian politics.

According to Eurovision rules, contestants cannot use political or other appeals in their performances.

In this regard, the European Broadcasting Union suggested that the artists change the composition, but they refused and did not come to the competition.

In 2016, the European Broadcasting Union suspended Romania from participating in Eurovision for debts.

According to media reports, over eight years, TVR owed him € 14.5 million. The amount was expected to be paid in April 2016, but this did not happen.

  • RIA News

  • © Vladimir Astapkovich

A year later, there were no artists from Russia at the competition in Kiev.

This happened due to the fact that the Security Service of Ukraine prohibited the entry of Yulia Samoilova, who was chosen as the representative of the country.

In addition, Russian TV channels refused to broadcast Eurovision 2017, as a result of which the question of the removal of Russia in 2018 was raised.

Hungary decided not to participate in Eurovision 2020.

The official reason was not announced, however, the media claimed that this was due to the performance of artists of non-traditional sexual orientation at the competition.

As noted by the media, the statement was made against the background of the strengthening of Budapest's policy to strengthen family values.

In the same year, the participation of musicians from Iceland in the competition was questionable, since the Hatari group, which performed at Eurovision a year earlier, used images of the Palestinian flag during the announcement of the results.

After the show, the European Broadcasting Union stated that such behavior was against the rules of the competition.

This incident caused a violent reaction from some viewers.

They considered that Iceland showed disrespect to Israel and the competition itself, after which they created a petition demanding to remove Iceland from Eurovision 2020. The application was signed by more than 30 thousand people, but the Icelandic team Daði og Gagnamagnið was still allowed to participate.

However, the show was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.