Denmark: OGAE President Calls for Boycott of Eurovision 2012


  OGAE Denmark Eurovisionary reports, that the newly elected president of OGAE Denmark has called for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 due to human rights violations related to the construction of the 2012 venue “Baku Crystal Hall“. Johann Sørensen sent out a press release suggesting to the Danish national broadcaster DRK and other broadcasters to boycott the event. The EBU has denied that there is a link between the demolitions reported by the BBC and the Eurovision Song Contest.

“If the authorities in Azerbaijan can not come to respect the human rights and offer a proper compensation then the EBU should find another country to host the contestIf the EBU can not get Azerbaijan to respect human rights and still lets them host the contest, then I do believe that Denmark should boycott the competition,” the press release by Sørensen reads.

The new concert hall is built for the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the BBC hundreds of families were evicted from their homes without proper compensation to open up space.  A pensioner has reportedly been threatened to leave her home and gas, electricity and heating have been cut. Read the full story here!

However, the EBU told Eurovisionary: “During a recent visit to Baku, we observed that the construction of the concert hall media reports refer to is already well underway on a clean construction site and thus there are no demolitions needed. However, the City of Baku has been undergoing extensive construction work for the past years already, and the reported demolitions might be related to general infrastructural activities, not at all necessarily related to the Eurovision Song Contest“.

Source= Eurovisionary.com

 

 

12 thoughts on “Denmark: OGAE President Calls for Boycott of Eurovision 2012

      • “TBH I believe the BBC more than the EBU”

        So do I. All I want is a happy ESC without any politics but I guess that it was rather naive to think this possible with Azerbaijan hosting. Whatever they do now will damage ESC 2012 for me. If they relocate the contest (which they won’t do if I know anything about the EBU …), I will be sad for the Azerbaijani fans and the normal people living in Baku … and if they stick with Baku, I will be sad for all the people who had to suffer because of the government inhumane megalomania. I wish that Ell & Nikki hadn’t won!

  1. So stupid of OGAE Denmark, I am ashamed of this news.. cause I know if the country was Russia they had do nothing. Really nothing!! I heard about this news yesterday, it was on TV here..

    BBC has one story and EBU another, there can just be one, the truth!! they should fixe it without causing more problems. And of course the problem can be solved!

    • I agree with you, and I don’t see what OGAE Denmark wants EBU to do about it anyway. Cancel the whole contest? Choose another contry to host it? Isn’t it too late for that?

  2. I fell like I hear all the time, that Azerbaijan is building the place the contest will be held. I’ll bet that they are so lazy that they haven’t even begun, Seriously!

    I still believe the contest should be moved to a country, which at least has Eurovision experience like Italy or Sweden.

    I actually hope that if the story about people being forced to move, is true. Then I hope that Denmark will boycott the contest, but still be helding Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, just without sending a represent.

    Ofcourse I would be sad if Denmark withdraws, most because it’s my own country I talk about, but we will be doing the right thing I believe, cause this contest should be without any political influence!

  3. We are witnessing a replication of the falsehood, which has spread by BBC, once again. There have never been residential houses. People, about whom BBC has written, live far from the Crystal Hall.

  4. People have, absolutely, been evicted from the places (rentals/buildings/neighborhoods) in which they live by Azerbaijani authorities, in the interests of accommodating contestants and spectators. No self-respecting artist, no self-respecting organizer would endorse such actions, but there you are. It has happened. Boycott Baku! It is the only way, besides reparations to displaced citizens, to begin to make this right.

  5. Azerbaijan has proven with the great show it is able to host such events, very professional and developed. With time Azerbaijan will also prove all those allegations about human rights were unresearched, misunderstood, taken out of context and sometimes simply untrue :-) Time is the best judge! Give it 10 years and people will be flocking into Azerbaijan!

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