The show’s production company tells Yle that it contacted the contestants to offer them the opportunity to return to the competition.
The production company does not take a position on whether the case in question is discriminatory. Saku Tiainen
Mightily according to the information received by Nelonen The Voice of Finland -two contestants have been removed from the television format due to dual citizenship. The competitors in question are citizens of both Finland and Russia.
A person who participated in the singing competition tells Yle that he received a text message from the producer in charge the night before the recording of the program, saying that he has been removed from the competition.
The removal was justified by the fact that the competitor is a “citizen of a country waging a war of aggression”.
– No matter how blameless his behavior in the program would be, the discussion about the program would inevitably become politicized, and unfortunately we cannot allow this to happen, the text message stated in English.
CEO of the Finnish singing competition production company ITV Pete Paavolainen tells Yle that they are committed to “equal treatment of everyone”.
– However, the extraordinary world situation now brings perspectives to society and also to entertainment that have not been encountered before. The production company and the channel made a decision together quickly in the middle of production, which was soon found to be wrong. We apologize for that and would like to correct the error. We have been in contact with the competitor in question and offered him the opportunity to return to the program, Paavolainen commented in an email to Yle.
Paavolainen tells Yle that the production company made a mistake in the matter. However, he does not take a position on whether the case in question is discriminatory.
Iltalehti reached Paavolainen, but he only commented briefly on the matter.
– Unfortunately, we have decided with the channel that we no longer have anything to comment on the matter at this stage, Paavolainen writes to Iltalehte in a text message.
Source: Over