Turbulence in Cyprus, according to an article published by the newspaper “Politis”, revealing that there is a serious issue of possible violation of regulations, which the EBU is asked to clarify. The problem has to do with the way Cyprus has chosen for the artist selection for Eurovision this year.
As already announced, RIK will use a popular talent show this year to choose a representative for Eurovision 2024. For this purpose, the Cypriot public broadcaster signed an agreement with Panik Records and Nikos Koklonis’ Barking Well, which took over the production of the new season of Fame Story that will broadcast in Greece, as well as Cyprus. It is still unclear how the song that the winner will perform will be determined.
The issue arises from the involvement of a private channel that is not a member of the EBU and is active in the selection process in a country other than the one for which the selection is made – and in fact in a country that also participates in the Competition with a different process (Greece). The regulations of the Competition leave complete freedom to the public broadcasters – members of the EBU to choose, by whatever procedure they want, the artist and the song that will represent the country. Specifically, article 2.2.1 states that “the national selection is organized under the sole responsibility of the respective Member Broadcaster” .
Since the EBU’s reasoning regarding Eurovision is the promotion of its Public Channels – Members, we understand that the selection process through “Fame Story” is a risky balancing act between compatibility or not with the EBU’s internal regulations, but also with television ethics.
It remains to be clarified by the EBU whether it accepts the Cyprus procedure as being in accordance with the Contest’s statutes. At RIK, however, as mentioned in the publication, the alternative scenarios are already set on the table, these being (a) an internal selection, as has been done in recent years, or (b) a selection through a different talent show, produced by RIK this time. It is therefore clear that if the EBU deems the already announced selection process as non-conformant to rules, RIK will be forced to change the already announced plans.
[Source: Politis ]
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