Violations observed during Eurovision pre-selection

The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 national pre-selection has been affected by serious violations and risks losing its credibility. The accusations were brought to the public at a press conference by a group of initiative formed of journalists, bloggers, producers and managers in the music industry, Info-Prim Neo reports. The chairman of the Public Association of Art Consumers Iurie Badicu said that nobody had checked if the songs submitted for the contest had been launched only after September 1, 2010, as stipulated in the regulation. “This could have easily been done by submitting a request to the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual or other monitoring companies, but nobody did it”, said the producer. Another violation was related to the issue of plagiarism. There is no workgroup or commission responsible of evaluating songs suspected of plagiarism. “Five songs have been accused of plagiarism. The regulation stipulates that a commission must be created to investigate the accusations”, said composer and songwriter Viorel Tiganas. Journalist Victoria Cusnir, another member of the initiative group, had personally requested for the Sun Stroke Project song to be checked for plagiarism and the result was negative. According to the group of initiative, there were some violations in the election of jury members. Singers, songwriters and producers didn’t delegate any official representatives to suggest candidates for the jury. Another aspect that arose complaints was the voting procedure on social networks for the “People’s Choice”. “Participants humiliatingly begged for votes from their friends to reach the final”, explained the head of the Public Association of Art Consumers. The members of the initiative groups requested that listed violations were examined and later avoided. They also came up with several proposals. Firstly, the regulation of participation at Eurovision should be amended and the number of jury members increased to 15-17 people. The Eurovision national finals will take place on March 10 and will be disputed among 21 participants.