NRK, the Norwegian national broadcaster, have discussed boycotts & voting changes, ahead of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna.

NRK have outlined the reasons why they won’t boycott the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel continue to participate, as well as changes they want to see implemented. Vibeke Fürst Haugen (Director-General of NRK), Camilla Bjorn (Director at NRK’s ​​Content Division) & Charlo Halvorsen (Editor for Entertainment and Fiction at NRK) have jointly issued the following statement:

“NRK wants us in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to take a concrete position on whether the Israeli broadcaster’s participation in Eurovision damages the competition’s reputation.

Another key concern we have concerns vulnerabilities in the voting system. It is known that Israel has actively tried to influence the voting results through campaigns and actions. This challenges the credibility of the competition itself. NRK believes that the EBU must change the voting system so that it is more difficult to manipulate.

The third main track in NRK’s ​​work on this case concerns the security situation for both the many participants and for NRK’s ​​and the other broadcasters’ employees in the arena during the final itself.

We believe that a democratic process among the members of the EBU will yield a better result and to a greater extent safeguard the independence of public broadcasters in the dissemination of news.

We believe in using the democratic tools of what is a rule-governed member organisation, rather than NRK pursuing an independent foreign policy that undermines the credibility of our news coverage.

NRK is therefore actively working to ensure that the EBU takes our concerns and those of many others seriously.”

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Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovoix