In August 2020, thousands of people across Belarus came out to protest the result of the country’s general election and called for change in the country. Belarus has been embroiled in a tumultuous few months since then as a result of the ongoing protests, some of which have been aimed at Belarus’ national broadcaster BTRC. And now, the
Belarusian Culture Solidarity Foundation has formally asked the European Broadcasting Union to strip the broadcaster of its rights to membership, and thus their ability to participate in Eurovision.
For a country to be eligible to compete at Eurovision, one of their television broadcasters must be a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – the only exception being Australia’s SBS, who is an associate member but was formally invited to participate.