Today the European Broadcasting Union published a statement that confirmed that voting irregularities had been found in last year’s contest after official investigations were concluded. These investigations were the result of a number of claims shortly after last years contest which revealed a number of countries were thought to have engaged in unfair activities to influence both jury and public voting in a number of other countries. The investigation confirmed that activities to influence voting had taken place but that no broadcaster was implicated in the investigation, nor did any of the incidents influence the final result of the 2013 contest.
The EBU confirmed today that any future attempts to influence voting results will launch processes which could result in the expulsion of the relevant broadcaster for up to three years. Dr Frank Dieter Freiling, chairman of the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest stated, “Just as football clubs are in principle accountable for the behaviour of their fans, we will hold – on a case-by-case basis – participating broadcasters accountable and make them responsible to prevent voting irregularities in favour of their entry.”
This news comes after earlier announcements that the make-up of juries in individual countries must be revealed prior to the contest, and will publish individual juror votes as well as full split results of jury voting and televoting for each country.
The voting will continue to be collated by German company Digame, with results overseen by global auditing firm PwC.
