Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition has said she will start raising the issue of BTRC in the EBU with EU Foreign Ministers.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has given her support to a campaign to have BTRC removed from European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Ms Tsikhanouskaya supports the move due to financial benefits that BTRC receives from ad revenue, the high ratings of the Eurovision Song Contest and the prestige it brings to BTRC.
“The Eurovision broadcast is a great reason for BTRC to raise its rating and make money from advertisers. “
Tsikhanouskaya claims that employees of BTRC are involved in the covering up of crimes the current leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and his government have committed. The current head of the Belarusian broadcaster is currently on a European Union list of sanctioned persons due to his involvement in the disputed election and subsequent crackdown.
“Employees of state TV channels receive awards for their contribution to covering up crimes”
The calls for the state broadcaster of Belarus to be removed from the European Broadcasting Union have been growing. Last week The Belarusian Foundation for Cultural Solidarity started campaigning to have the state broadcaster of Belarus removed from the European Broadcasting Union. A social media hashtag #stopbt has been launched by the organisation demanding that BTRC is removed from this year’s contest. A campaign that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is now behind.
“I support the initiative of the Belarusian Foundation for Cultural Solidarity and will demand to exclude Belteleradiocompany from the European Broadcasting Union”
This is the second international event that Ms Tsikhanouskaya is hoping to have Belarus removed from. She lobbied to have Belarus removed as co-host of the Ice Hockey Championships, which were removed from the country last week. She added that:
“As in the case of the ice hockey championship, I will talk about this with the EU foreign ministers. And I believe that together we will prove again: no one in the civilised world will cooperate with criminals.”
Image Source: Mediasat | Source: Telegraf.by
Belarus debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 and has made it to the final on five occasions. Belarus’ best result in the contest came in 2007 when Dmitry Koldun finished 6th in the final with a total of 145 points. In total Belarus has qualified for the Eurovision final six times in sixteen attempts.
