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Belarus BELARUS 2022 - not taking part

escYOUnited

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hijirio

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Yeah tbh if the EBU doesn’t wanna be represented by double standards, they should ban Turkey too.
TRT is making dictator, homophobic and anti-EU propaganda all the time, but it’s not emphasized the same way in the international media, there’s little to no backlash from the fans and above all #moneytalks

Belarus is an easier sacrifice.
 

A-lister

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Dropping truth bombs right here. If the EBU would follow through with this they would technically have to ban :ru: and :az: as well. Maybe even :pl: tbh. Turkey and Hungary probably knew that it would have happened to them as well sooner or later so they said goodbye first.
Not saying they should btw before people start coming at me haha. Just trying to point out the hypocrisy.

Russia and Azerbaijan yes, Poland not. EBU can't and shouldn't act as some sort of "moral police" and ban countries left to right just because of ideological disagreements, we need to look at each case separately and in the case of Belarus it's clear that all red lines have been passed by a far stretch. As much as EBU can remain apolitical, they should, otherwise we'll end up with a group of people ambiguously judging countries and I think that's a wrong path as well.

If Poland is banned, then Sweden ought to be banned as well, at least Poland has big oppositional media which I can't say about our country. There are many countries taking part with questionable levels of democracy, freedom of speech and expression, but we can't ban half of Europe xshrug

Turkey is imprisoning journalists and political opponents en masse just like Belarus and Russia, while Poland and Hungary don't. I think to even group these together is incorrect.
 
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rasmuslights

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Russia and Azerbaijan yes, Poland not. EBU can't and shouldn't act as some sort of "moral police" and ban countries left to right just because of ideological disagreements, we need to look at each case separately and in the case of Belarus it's clear that all red lines have been passed by a far stretch. As much as EBU can remain apolitical, they should, otherwise we'll end up with a group of people ambiguously judging countries and I think that's a wrong path as well.

If Poland is banned, then Sweden ought to be banned as well, at least Poland has big oppositional media which I can't say about our country. There are many countries taking part with questionable levels of democracy, freedom of speech and expression, but we can't ban half of Europe xshrug

Turkey is improsing journalists and political opponents en masse just like Belarus and Russia, while Poland and Hungary don't. I think to even group these together is incorrect.


agree it's actually quite upsetting to see people putting Russia, Azerbaijan etc. in the same bin as Poland and Hungary... yes Poland and Hungary are flawed in their democracies but still far from being Russia/Turkey
 

crashworld

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So just to clarify, EBU is suspending BTRC's membership with the EBU is due to the broadcaster not acting in accordance to EBU's core values right considering BRTC is a state and national broadcaster, which is controlled by the government.

So can I say that EBU is actually only concerned on what the member broadcaster has done as opposed to what the country's government has done?
 

Matt

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So just to clarify, EBU is suspending BTRC's membership with the EBU is due to the broadcaster not acting in accordance to EBU's core values right considering BRTC is a state and national broadcaster, which is controlled by the government.

So can I say that EBU is actually only concerned on what the member broadcaster has done as opposed to what the country's government has done?

I think that is a fair assessment. The EBU is trying to be a non-political organization (I know that's subjective etc.) but the intent is to stay out of the governments business. Belarus' situation is quite unique in terms of what they're trying to pull. I know that everything is reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the EBU, but in this case I happen to agree with it. In terms of Turkey or Russia's situation, we would have to look at the broadcaster's behavior, not the governments.

I'm just mentally preparing myself to update the thread to "not taking part" :(
 

GermanBango

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Russia and Azerbaijan yes, Poland not. EBU can't and shouldn't act as some sort of "moral police" and ban countries left to right just because of ideological disagreements, we need to look at each case separately and in the case of Belarus it's clear that all red lines have been passed by a far stretch. As much as EBU can remain apolitical, they should, otherwise we'll end up with a group of people ambiguously judging countries and I think that's a wrong path as well.

If Poland is banned, then Sweden ought to be banned as well, at least Poland has big oppositional media which I can't say about our country. There are many countries taking part with questionable levels of democracy, freedom of speech and expression, but we can't ban half of Europe xshrug

Turkey is improsing journalists and political opponents en masse just like Belarus and Russia, while Poland and Hungary don't. I think to even group these together is incorrect.
True yes. I probably should have phrased my initial statement better. Didn’t mean to imply that actual dictatorships are equal to governments who well … have made some questionable decisions regarding human rights and freedom of speech in recent years.
 

A-lister

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True yes. I probably should have phrased my initial statement better. Didn’t mean to imply that actual dictatorships are equal to governments who well … have made some questionable decisions regarding human rights and freedom of speech in recent years.

No problem, I understand your post but felt I had to react because we're on a dangerous path if we mix things up too easily. Poland has its issues, Hungary too, in fact all countries to some extent, but to compare them to actual dictatorships that imprisons, or even kill, journalists, activists, political opponents and just civilians for raising their voices, is far-stretched.
 

crashworld

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I think that is a fair assessment. The EBU is trying to be a non-political organization (I know that's subjective etc.) but the intent is to stay out of the governments business. Belarus' situation is quite unique in terms of what they're trying to pull. I know that everything is reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the EBU, but in this case I happen to agree with it. In terms of Turkey or Russia's situation, we would have to look at the broadcaster's behavior, not the governments.

I'm just mentally preparing myself to update the thread to "not taking part" :(

So I guess that's what EBU is trying to achieve here. As long as the country broadcaster with the EBU membership does not do anything against the core values of EBU, EBU doesn't care what the country's government has done despite the country broadcaster is affiliated/controlled by the government.

So this explains why perhaps EBU is not doing anything to Russia/Azerbaijan/Turkey/Israel's broadcaster yet since they do not appear to be in breach of the EBU's core values despite the respective governments have been involved in "questionable" (to use the term loosely) antics.
 
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A-lister

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So just to clarify, EBU is suspending BTRC's membership with the EBU is due to the broadcaster not acting in accordance to EBU's core values right considering BRTC is a state and national broadcaster, which is controlled by the government.

So can I say that EBU is actually only concerned on what the member broadcaster has done as opposed to what the country's government has done?

I mean technically it's the broadcasters that compete, not the countries, so yeah that's pretty much it.

However, it's very hard to fully disconnect a public broadcaster from the state, in some cases (like Belarus) more than others but it's hardly the only politicized public broadcaster out there, but probably the most extreme one out of the ones currently active in Eurovision.

I personally don't believe that any public broadcaster is politically independent, I mean it's almost impossible since they are state funded and directly or indirectly under political control, but yeah there's a difference between being non-independent and being a propaganda tool supporting mass-imprisonment of peaceful protesters like the Belarusian one is doing.
 

iwanna belovewithyou

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even if I am not transported to the eurovision song contest, countries such as algeria, tunisia, morocco, lebanon, examples of democracy.....
 

A-lister

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I hope people who insisted that Belarus should take part because "Eurovision should only be about music" will finally come to their senses after the broadcaster's torture interview of kidnapped activist Roman Protasevich. A broadcaster like that has nothing to do with Eurovision.
 

EscGeek

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The perfect way out (if they can't overthrow the batshit crazy dictator) is when a group of journalists moves to Ukraine, Poland or Baltic states, creates the new Belarusian broadacster (I know Belarusians from abroad who can sponsor it) and the EBU invites them to join.

How likely is that to happen??
 

AlekS

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Ukraine has just banned Propahanda 24 Belarus 24 (BTRC news channel) for violation of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and Ukrainian laws, and incitement to national hatred.

Had to be done few months ago. Like sending a song, where they indirectly threatened to hang Ukrainians, wasn't enough.
 

burrito

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How likely is that to happen??

it kind of is.
there is already a tv station based in Poland, called Belsat, airing programmes in Belarussian and Russian, but it's a part of TVP. I guess it would be possible to create a completely new broadcaster, but it would surely take a lot of work, in any other case there would probably be one already. Unless there is and we're just not aware of it.
 

Lance Esgard

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Hmm, the awkwardness with an alternative broadcaster is that if Belarus were to then win, unless the alternate broadcaster already had an Australian-style deal in place, the EBU Reference Group might have to ask some very uncomfortable questions about the hosting arrangements.
 

A-lister

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Hmm, the awkwardness with an alternative broadcaster is that if Belarus were to then win, unless the alternate broadcaster already had an Australian-style deal in place, the EBU Reference Group might have to ask some very uncomfortable questions about the hosting arrangements.

I think with Belarus, if EBU would accept a Belarusian broadcaster that works from abroad, that the contest would also be hosted in the country where said broadcaster is stationed.

In the case of Belsat, which was mentioned in the thread, it's a Belarusian broadcaster run by TVP in Poland, and TVP being an EBU member I guess could actually make Belsat eligible as well, so in a hypothetical scenario that Belsat could send an entry for Belarus to Eurovision, if they win the contest, it would most probably be hosted in Poland jointly by TVP and Belsat.
 
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