RUSSIA – It was the Georgian national broadcaster who leaked this morning the information that on Monday EBU will discuss the full suspension of Russia from the EUROPEAN BROADCASTING UNION.
Russia took the matters into their hands. They withdraw in advance!
Following the latest developments and the exclusion of Russia from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, there were thoughts of removing the Russian broadcasters that were members of the EBU. In fact, this discussion was scheduled to take place next Monday.
Apart from the EBU’s move, the stance of other countries was quite strong, threatening to abstain from the competition in the case of Russia’s participation in Eurovision 2022.
Today, with an announcement of the Russian press agency TASS, they announced the departure of the three networks – members of the EBU. In the following statement, they explain the reasons why they leave.
“Channel One, VGTRK and Radio Dom Ostankino have announced their departure from the European Broadcasting Union in response to Russia’s exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which we consider an inappropriate political sacrifice in a music meeting that has always emphasized its non-political status.”
EBU (as usual) has no idea of the move
THE EBU STATEMENT
The EBU was informed by RTR on Friday that this could be the outcome of suspending Russia from this yearโs Eurovision Song Contest. However, in light of the unprecedented crisis unfolding in Ukraine, our Executive Board still felt that the inclusion of the Russian entry in this yearโs event would undermine the values of the Contest and bring the competition into disrepute.
Our Union is committed to upholding the values of public service media and, as this conflict escalates, our priority must be to ensure all citizens continue to have access to trusted, independent news and information and that journalists are allowed to report freely and safely.
We stand with all our Members who are working under extremely challenging circumstances to bring impartial reporting to their audiences – supporting media freedom must now be a priority for all sides in this conflict.
an oikotimes original text
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