13:00, 19 September 2009

"Eurovision" toughens its rules because of Azerbaijan

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) - the organizer of "Eurovision" - considers a possibility to put a ban to compete for the countries, where the information about the voters is disclosed.

The organizers decided to make changes after they got information that the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan started revealing the persons who voted, during "Eurovision-2009", for the participants from Armenia. The EBU started its investigation on August 20 of the fact.

The EBU officials also discussed a possibility to punish Azerbaijan, having forbidden this country to participate in "Eurovision" for three years. However, they decided not to apply these sanctions right now. If the story repeats, the country, which breaks the rules, will be debarred from the song competition for three years, the BBC reports.

In its turn, the Azerbaijani member of the EBU - the "Ictimai", which ensures broadcasting of "Eurovision" in Azerbaijan, while having confirmed its adherence to fair and free voting, has stated that nobody was summoned to the MNS and interrogated there, as the "Lenta.ru" writes.