🇳🇴 Norway: NRK Responds to Call For Israel’s Removal from Eurovision

The Norwegian broadcaster NRK has responded to calls for it to ask for the removal of Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.

NRK has responded with a public letter after the organisation was called on to request that Israel be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest. Vibeke Fürst Haugen, Head of Broadcasting, Camilla Bjørn, Director of NRK’s ​​Content Division and Charlo Halvorsen, Editor for Entertainment and Fiction, have jointly written a statement explaining NRK’s position.

Our approach is principled:

NRK is a public broadcaster. Our most important task is to be a credible news provider, 365 days a year. Trust in the news requires that NRK is open about editorial priorities and underlying circumstances. The news mission requires that we cover the war and the atrocities that are taking place. We must show civilian consequences. We must explain and put things in context, and we must seek to contribute to ensuring that those responsible are confronted and held accountable for their actions and attitudes. And we do that, whether through our correspondents, or by bringing Norwegian political authorities and other actors to debate in our own broadcasts.

We must ensure that both the war and the strong reactions are raised in the social arena and receive attention. But we cannot do it as a political actor. We can only do it as an independent news provider.

Every year, NRK participates in Eurovision. The ambition with Eurovision has been to create an arena to unite nations through music and culture. It is a competition for public broadcasters – not a competition between nations.

The criterion for participation in Eurovision is membership in the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union.

After Eurovision 2024, NRK provided clear feedback to the EBU based on the experiences from the final in Malmö. Among other things, we had a constructive dialogue with the EBU about a new and stricter set of rules for the competition. The goal has been to ensure a unifying and safe competition for the audience and participants. We have also, from the very beginning, conveyed the temperature and commitment in the debate on this matter in Norway to the EBU, both in formal and informal dialogue. We will continue to do so.

The EBU’s assessment so far has been that Israel’s public broadcaster is editorially independent of the State of Israel. This also means that the criteria for membership and participation in the Eurovision Song Contest are met. It is correct that some politicians in other countries have spoken out about Israel’s participation in the contest, and the Slovenian broadcaster has expressed the desire for a boycott. However, according to the EBU, no members have formally advocated a boycott.

If NRK were to initiate a cultural boycott of another participant, we would lose our credibility as an independent news provider.

When Russia’s public broadcaster was expelled from the ESC in connection with the invasion of Ukraine, this was partly because they did not meet the EBU’s criteria for membership.

Countries have foreign policies, but public broadcasters do not. We must be independent if we are to fulfill our role.

Israel’s participation at Eurovision has been a controversial topic since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023. Many artists, musicians and fans across Europe have called for Israel to be excluded from the competition because of their involvement in military action. Recently, broadcasters in Slovenia, Spain and Iceland have asked the EBU for a debate among its members about Israel’s participation.

Source: NRK

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