The EBU has released a statement regarding BTRC’s membership suspension after its Executive Board has agreed to suspend the broadcaster following the latest developments in the country.

The EBU’s Executive Board held a meeting today where they agreed to suspend BTRC’s EBU membership.

The EBU released the following statement regarding BTRC’s EBU membership:

The EBU has been closely monitoring the suppression of media freedom in Belarus and have consistently called on BTRC, as a Member of the EBU, to uphold our core values of freedom of expression, independence and accountability.

Since the disputed elections last summer, we have been campaigning for the protection of independent journalism and freedom of expression in the country. We have publicly supported journalists at BTRC who have been protesting against government interference. We have also been monitoring BTRC’s coverage and have communicated our concerns to their management.

In recent weeks, we have been particularly alarmed by the broadcast of interviews apparently obtained under duress.

We have also monitored other BTRC broadcasts on this issue which have raised other serious and quite exceptional concerns.

In light of these exceptional developments, the Executive Board has no alternative other than to propose the suspension of BTRC’s membership of the EBU.

BTRC will have two weeks to respond, before suspension comes into effect.

This follows the Belarus’ disqualification from the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest due to a breach in the rules of the competition.

Hence Belarus’ participation at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest is pretty grim taken the given circumstances and BTRC’s suspension.

Source: EBU