Political Controversy and Censorship Put Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Eurovision Return on Hold
Political tensions and broadcast censorship in Bosnia & Herzegovina are casting a dark shadow over the country’s Eurovision future. Recent domestic events have sparked widespread debate, showing that political polarization inside the country is pushing a potential return to the contest even further away. While the national public broadcaster BHRT has repeatedly expressed a strong desire to return to the Eurovision Song Contest once its financial obligations to the EBU are met, the deep-rooted political divide between the country's public broadcasters continues to stall any real progress. Broadcast Censorship and National Scandals At the center of the recent controversy is RTRS , the pro-Serbian public broadcaster operating within Bosnia & Herzegovina under the BHRT umbrella organization. Tensions erupted after B&H's primary telecommunications provider censored RTRS for airing live coverage of the funeral of convicted Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić, who recently pas...