National Broadcasting Company calls on EBU to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty

“Members of the Supervisory Board are concerned about a direct threat in this letter that PJSC National Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company ‘will be excluded from further events’ (namely hosting of Eurovision), if Russian singer Yulia Samoilova is banned from entering Ukraine to participate in the Eurovision 2017’…  Having visited Crimea without the permission of the Ukrainian authorities, Yulia Samoilova violated the sovereignty and laws of Ukraine,” reads the statement, UA: Pershy reports.

Members of the Supervisory Board also note that “we fully share negative feelings of members of the European Broadcasting Union that ‘the current contest is being used as a means in the current confrontation between the Russian Federation and Ukraine’. However, we are surprised by the fact that the Director General of the European Broadcasting Union expresses ‘disappointment’ and ‘regret’ on this issue not to the Russian side, but to the Ukrainian side”.

The requirement to revoke the decision by the Security Service of Ukraine, taken within its legitimate powers, as well as the thesis on the coordination of decisions by the Security Service of Ukraine with the EBU, can be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, which goes beyond the authorities of the EBU and the tasks of the Eurovision Song Contest.

“We call Ms. Deltenre in her role as the Director General of the EBU to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, not to turn the European Broadcasting Union into a tool for strengthening foreign political manipulations and not to prevent, by such statements, the normal and full-fledged conduct of the contest - this year, as well as the next year. We also call on the EBU to avoid threats regarding the exclusion of Ukraine from the number of participants of the Eurovision Song Contest,” reads the statement.

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