Furious Brussels wants answers over ban on EU flags at Eurovision

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 170 points – Furious Brussels wants answers over ban on EU flags at Eurovision
euronews.com

The European Commission has expressed anger over a ban on EU flags at the Eurovision Song Contest and demands explanations.

The allegations, made by several spectators who attended the Grand Final on Saturday and were told off for carrying the flags, quickly turned viral and prompted a stern rebuke from Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas.

"Eurovision is first and foremost a celebration of European spirit, of our European diversity and talent. The EU flag is a symbol of this," Schinas said on X on Saturday evening.

"Less than a month to the European elections, there should be no obstacles, big or small, to celebrating what unites all Europeans."

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Don't forget the Netherlands ban

Wait why did they get banned?

There was some kind of incident between the artist and a camera woman. The exact details aren't public, AFAIK.

According to AVROTROS, Klein “repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed”, which “led to a threatening movement from Joost towards the camera”. They said: “Joost did not touch the camera woman.”

This was backstage btw. Idk if raising your fist as a gesture against a camera, when you told them to fuck off multiple times is deserving of the kind of shit he is getting. But who knows, i wasnt there.

Not wanting to be filmed backstage at an event seems pretty normal IMO as backstage is where a lot of prep work happens. It probably not safe for untrained personnel and/or might reveal things that people don't want on camera (like costume malfunctions that are being worked out)

Also, it was literally seconds after he had finished singing an ode to his dead dad, so a very emotionally raw moment.

Which is why he had an agreement with everyone that he was not to be filmed at that time. An agreement that the obnoxious camera woman had agreed to prior to figuratively pissing all over it.

Obnoxious camera woman? You don't think she had a producer in her ear telling her what to do?

Whether someone else was telling her to or not, she was behaving obnoxiously. "Just following orders" is no excuse.

There are absolutely circumstances where I'd give someone a pass, even if what they did is poor behavior. I don't know anything about her, but we're talking about one of the largest TV events in Europe and there's enormous pressure on every crew involved. You have to be a really gutsy and probably very experienced motherfucker to stop and say no to the producer in that moment when the stakes are so high. Even more so if you're a woman.

I get what you're saying and in most cases I'd agree.

In this case, though, it was a clear invasion of his privacy and disrespect of him as a person.

To ignore his repeated requests to leave him alone in a very vulnerable moment, after you've already agreed to along with the rest of the press pool, is not just poor behavior. It's abuse befitting the worst paparazzi sleazeballs.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet claims that he destroyed the camera.

Making people think you're going to hit them is literally illegal, even if you don't follow through. It's not just a rule, it's also a law.

And yes , there are different jurisdictions for everything, but show me a jurisdiction that doesn't have such a law

Making people think you're going to hit them is literally illegal

That's just your assumption. What I've read is that he tried to physically turn the camera away from his face and the obnoxious camera woman reported that as a threat.

Either way, banning him from a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform at one of the biggest music events in the world is WAY out of proportion, especially as he was just defending himself from having his privacy invaded in a very emotional moment (just after singing an ode to his dead dad)

The reason given is that "he made a threatening gesture towards a camera woman"

This is likely just an excuse to ban him because he spoke out against israel committing Genocide delegation not answering a question, as instant disqualification is extremely disproportionate for a gesture.

It also served as a great distraction from israel being allowed to compete.

That was Eric Saade with the scarf on the arm, but it was my first idea aswell. Or was there a separate incident with Joost Klein that i wasnt able to find?

I think you are right I might be confused. Joost Klein did speak up during a panel during Eurovision to make the israeli singer answer a question they were trying to dodge

He also covered himself in the Dutch flag to be unrecognizable when they sat him next to israel

I didn't follow Eurovision too closely so I cannot confirm whether Klein spoke up against israel before Eurovision. For now I'll correct my comment.

The key point is that israel violated multiple rules themselves and harassed many contestants including the Irish one. So the decision to completely axe Joost for what appears to be a very minor infraction can almost not be explained by anything else that external motivations.