THE RIGHT to participate in the contest is contingent on membership of the European Broadcasting Union. The statutes of the Union limit membership "primarily ... to organisations in the European Broadcasting Area. This area, as defined by the International Telecommunications Union, extends from the Atlantic to the meridian 40 deg E. It is bounded on the south by the 30th parallel." Jerusalem, the official headquarters of Israeli Television, is 35 deg E, and on the 32nd parallel. This definition also allows for participation by Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, the Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.
Israeli participation deters these countries on a point of principle, although Morocco did enter in 1980 when Israel withdrew for Passover. Samira Bensaid sang "Betakit Hob", a plea for racial harmony based on the distressing observation that, "while our skins may be different colours, we are all red on the inside". It came second from last and Morocco has not repeated the experiment.
The only country ever refused entry to the contest is Liechtenstein, turned down in 1976 on the harsh grounds that it had no television station or transmission facilities of any sort. In a compromise to avert a diplomatic incident, Swiss Television agreed that their entry be officially that of "The Swiss Confederation and Liechtenstein"; this is a nice point, since the full name won't fit on the scoreboard. A further complication is that of Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia has always been a member of Eurovision; indeed, Croatian television staged the contest this year in Zagreb following their famous 1989 victory with "Rock Me, Baby".
The other countries of Eastern Europe - except Albania - have a parallel organisation called Intervision, with its own song contest. In the state of flux now characterising the old structures of Europe, these countries may be expected to avail themselves of Eurovision membership, thereby increasing the length of the contest by about an hour and causing terminal seizure of the voting system. Gorbachev has a lot to answer for.
Andrew Latto, Thornton Heath, Surrey.
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1900,00.html
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