The European Broadcasting Union and the Belarusian public broadcaster have finally reached an agreement to terminate BTRC’s membership. Once the broadcaster got the information, they released a statement about the matter.
The Belarusian broadcaster expected this decision, which they consider “doesn’t come from the EBU itself but from the governments of the countries that aimed to some citizen’s revolts against the Belarusian government”. Moreover, they accuse the EBU of not condemning the attacks received by BTRC’s workers when covering the protests of the Belarusian opposition. The intentions of the Belarusian broadcaster were to withdraw from the EBU themselves but decided to wait to check the “allegedly fake excuses of the EBU regarding their expulsion”.
BTRC has revealed that they “welcome this decision with a smile” adding that “the EBU has never had its own opinion“. After accusing other broadcasters and countries of inventing fake news about the Belarusian broadcaster, they added “We will also save many millions of euros and fulfil the dream of the majority of Belarusians. No more Eurovision!”.
Belarus made its first appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, a year after they joined the first-ever Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. They have taken part in the competition 16 times achieving their best result in 2007 with Dmitry Koldun and the song ‘Work Your Magic’. Belarus has taken part in every edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest until the date and have hosted and won it twice. The termination of the EBU’s membership means they will no longer be allowed to participate in any of the contests organised by the EBU, which means The Netherlands is the only country that has taken part in every edition of the song contest for kids.
You can read the full statement of BTRC here.