The Belarusian national broadcaster BTRC has been expelled from the EBU, and the decision is effective starting from today. This means that BTRC is not going to have access to their services, including the rights to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
The EBU held a meeting yesterday, where the Executive Board decided to expel BTRC. This follows their meeting from May, where the Executive Board has suspended BTRC’s membership after the arrest of the opposition activist journalist Roman Protesevitch and the silencing of the largest independent news portal in Belarus.
The Belarusian broadcaster released a statement calling the whole thing a “farce” and stating that they “intended to leave the EBU regardless”, and that by expelling them from the EBU, they are “making a favor to both BTRC and to the millions of Belarusians, as they will be saving millions and they will be better off without competing in Eurovision”.
Belarus last participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 with Zena and “Like It”. They selected an entry for 2020 as well which was “Da vidna” by VAL, whilst in 2021 they got disqualified due to breaking the rules of the Contest.
