EBU approves use of back-up jury by RTE after delay in Irish
televote
Geneva, 18 June 2003 - The European
Broadcasting Union (EBU) has carried out a full investigation into
the use of a back-up jury by Irish broadcaster RTE, to deliver
their vote to the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.
Despite allegations from some quarters that the back-up jury had
been used improperly, the EBU is now assured that there was no
improper conduct on the part of the Irish broadcaster, and RTE
followed the rules of the contest correctly, after experiencing a
delay in their televoting procedure.
The EBU has also been in contact with the Irish telecom
provider, eircom, charged with conducting the televoting on the
night, in the course of its investigation. eircom has concurred
that RTE was unable to use the televote due to a delay.
The rules of the Eurovision Song Contest demand that all
broadcasters have a back-up jury in place on the night of the
Final, just in case there should be a problem with the
televoting.
Each broadcaster is mandated to use its jury vote result if the
results of the public televote are not available for any
reason.
Ireland was the third country to have to deliver its vote to
Europe on the night of 24 May 2003. That meant it had just an 8–
10-minute window, after the close of voting, in which it had to
collate and scrutinize the televote result, and present the figures
on air.
Although RTE and eircom had made all efforts to prepare the
result in time, and worked successfully together in the past, the
result of the public vote did not arrive until the RTE spokeswoman,
Pamela Flood had been called upon, live on air, to allocate the
Irish points.
There was therefore no time for RTE officials to have the
televote result scrutinized by a notary, which is a prerequisite of
the rules of the competition. The televote is therefore null and
void.
The result of the 2003 Eurovision song Contest stands and the
2004 Contest will be held in Turkey, hosted by TRT Television.
For more information:
Sarah Yuen
Executive Project Manager - Live Events
Tel: +41 (0)79 217 0915
yuen@ebu.ch
Aline Bussat Ingwersen
Media Officer
Tel: +41 (0)22 717 2038
ingwersen@ebu.ch
