{"id":306786,"date":"2025-11-25T02:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306786\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T02:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:09:08","slug":"eurovision-announces-new-voting-measures-following-allegations-of-israeli-interference-the-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306786\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision announces new voting measures following allegations of Israeli interference \u2013 The Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Yuval<\/p>\n

Yuval Raphael representing Israel walks on stage during the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest Opening Ceremony at St. Jakobshalle on May 17, 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by Sebastian Reuter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Grace Gilson<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tNovember 24, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

(JTA<\/a>) \u2014 The organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest have revised this year\u2019s voting rules after broadcasters from several countries accused Israel of interfering in last year\u2019s audience poll.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines, which were announced Friday, reduce the number of votes allotted to each fan from 20 to 10, split fan votes with input from a professional jury and discourage promotional campaigns by third parties, according to Eurovision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo broadcaster or artist may now directly engage with or support campaigns by third parties \u2014 including governments or their agencies \u2014 that could distort the vote,\u201d Eurovision director Martin Green wrote in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, also pledged to \u201cexpand the contest\u2019s advanced security systems\u201d and monitor fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n

While the announcement of the new voting guidelines did not mention Israel, it appeared to have been spurred by outcry following last year\u2019s competition, where Israel\u2019s Yuval Raphael took second place after winning a notable lead from the audience vote.<\/a> Social media posts had exhorted supporters of Israel around the world to vote as many times as possible.<\/p>\n

Following her win, the public broadcasters from Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Iceland and Finland called on the European Broadcasting Union to conduct an audit of its audience voting system<\/a>, with some alluding to Israel manipulating the vote. (Green rejected the allegations of Israeli influence at the time.)<\/p>\n

Several European countries, including the Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland and Spain<\/a>, also announced in September that they would or may boycott the competition if Israel is allowed to participate.<\/p>\n

Following the announcements, the European Broadcast Union announced it would allow member countries to vote on Israel\u2019s participation, but changed its plans following the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza last month. The broadcasting union plans to discuss Israel\u2019s participation at its December meeting.<\/p>\n

The chancellor of Austria, which is set to host this year\u2019s competition, has also reportedly pressured its public broadcaster not to host the competition if Israel is barred<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly hope that this robust package of measures provides assurance for artists, broadcasters and fans alike,\u201d said Green of the new voting guidelines. \u201cAbove all I hope it allows for the Contest to acknowledge the sometimes-difficult world in which we live but resist attempts to turn our stage into a place of geopolitical division.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuval Raphael representing Israel walks on stage during the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest Opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-306786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}