Eurovision smear campaign: He's conducting the investigation - and risks €400.000 worth of contracts if Siim is found guilty
Uppdaterad 2015-06-16 | Publicerad 2015-06-15
Eurovision event manager Sietse Bakker investigates his collegue - and risks loosing €400.000 worth of contracts if he founds collegue guilty
Event supervisor Sietse Bakker has been conducting the investigation into the allegations against the Eurovision press officer - but Bakker risks losing more than €400,000 of EBU contracts if the press officer is found guilty.
“This brings into question whose interests he represents,” says Helena Sundén, secretary general of the Swedish Anti-Corruption Institute.
CLICK HERE FOR SWEDISH VERSION
Aftonbladet has been able to show that the Facebook account of Eurovision communications coordinator Jarmo Siim was used to send inappropriate messages to a journalist - and has also demonstrated that the likelihood of someone else having sent the message from Siim’s account is minimal.
Was handed the investigation
When Aftonbladet first published the story about Jarmo Siim’s Facebook message just before the Eurovision Song Contest grand final in Vienna in May, Eurovision boss Jon Ola Sand assigned the Contest’s event manager Sietse Bakker with the investigation. This was despite the fact that Bakker risks losing contracts of hundreds of thousands of euros with the EBU if he would come to the conclusion that Siim has acted inappropriately.
“Sietse Bakker is responsible for communications on behalf of the ESC and has a full mandate to speak on behalf of it,” wrote Sand in an email to Aftonbladet last week. “He is also Jarmo Siim’s immediate manager, and therefore the one who is the best and most appropriate to comment on this.”
Bakker runs the PR agency Wow Works, which is contracted by the EBU for various consulting services.
Aftonbladet has seen the Union’s contracts with Bakker’s company.
€400.000 worth of contracts
In the first, Bakker is hired as event manager for the Eurovision Song Contest, charging €120,000 plus VAT per year. The number of hours Bakker is expected to spend on the work amounts to a three-quarter time service.
In the second contract, Wow Works is hired to manage the Eurovision.tv website, plus other new media and communications services relating to the Eurovision Song Contest. This contract is worth €322,000 plus VAT per year. The working hours amount to the equivalent of 1.75 full-time employees - with one full-time position in project management in the form of Jarmo Siim’s services as communications coordinator for the Eurovision Song Contest and editor-in-chief of the Eurovision.tv website. The three-quarter time post for a webmaster for development and design of the website, plus other new media channels used by the Eurovision Song Contest.
However, both contracts include the same paragraph: “The Agency (Wow Works) shall not do any act or thing which is damaging or detrimental to the reputation of the EBU, and/or its Members and/or the Event and/or the name ‘Eurovision’.”
Independent consultant had been 'more natural choice'
“This brings into question this person’s objectivity and whose interests he represents,” says Helena Sundén, secretary general of the Swedish Anti-Corruption Institute, who was contacted by Aftonbladet to comment on this situation. “A more natural choice would have been to let an independent consultant look at this. This can otherwise look to the outside like someone is trying to protect one’s own interests - with the result that matters can’t be assessed objectively. In the case of the EBU, there are also the member broadcasters to consider, and the risk that one of them questions how objective the administrator of the investigation is.”
Aftonbladet has repeatedly approached Eurovision boss Jon Ola Sand for a comment.
Eurovision Song Contest executives
Jon Ola Sand
Official title: Executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest
Employed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as the boss of the Eurovision Song Contest. Seen on screen during the Contest as the man who verifies that the voting results are valid.
Jarmo Siim
Official title: Communications coordinator and editor-in-chief of Eurovision’s official website, eurovision.tv
Deals with press enquiries and communications for Eurovision on behalf of the EBU. Employed by PR agency Wow Works, which is contracted by the EBU to deal with these matters. Wow Works’ CEO is Sietse Bakker.
Sietse Bakker
Official title: Event supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest
Since 2011, the event supervisor deals with everything not related to the actual broadcast. Bakker is also CEO of PR agency Wow Works, which is contracted by the EBU to provide various services in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest. Wow Works employs Jarmo Siim to deal with press relations and communications for the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the EBU.