The BBC has set out its version of events to explain how it came to broadcast a racial slur uttered involuntarily by Tourette Syndrome campaigner John Davidson during the Bafta Film Awards.
Davidson shouted a racial slur during the second award of the night when Wunmi Mosaku accepted her best supporting actress award, and also when Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award. The two incidents happened within ten minutes of each other.
However, the term was not edited out from the BBC TV segment when Jordan and Lindo presented their award, and remained available on the BBC iPlayer through much of the following day.
The BBC’s account of the night’s events is set out in a letter from director general Tim Davie to Caroline Dinenage, the parliamentary chair of the UK’s Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC).
Davie said: “I’d like to make clear: although the racial slur was symptomatic of a disability and an involuntary tic, it should never have been broadcast. It was a genuine mistake, and we take full responsibility for our error.”
He explained that no one in the on-site edit truck heard the slur when they were watching the live feed of Jordan and Lindo presenting. “Because no one in the broadcast truck was aware it was on the live feed, there was therefore no editorial decision made to leave the language in.”
The edit team did hear the slur when Mosaku was on stage, and removed it from the version of the ceremony that would be broadcast later that evening, said Davie.
“It appears that soon after the second incident, the edit team in the truck started receiving reports, including from Bafta, that a racial slur had been shouted during the ceremony. Our understanding at this point is that the team editing the show in the truck mistakenly believed they had edited out the incident that was being referenced, on the basis that they had heard and edited out the slur shouted out during the best supporting actress award. Therefore, when they were told a racial slur had been shouted, they believed they had removed it.”
Soon after the broadcast, reports came in – including on social media – about the racial slur.
“Our current understanding is that the on-site team did not believe that the slur was audible on the broadcast, and the show remained on iPlayer unedited that evening,” explained Davie.
After further discussion overnight, the BBC’s decision to keep the ceremony on iPlayer was reviewed, and on Monday morning the issue was raised with the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, who authorised the removal of the broadcast from iPlayer. The programme was taken down from the iPlayer at 11.47am.
“We are now looking in more detail why the team did not ascertain sooner that there had been two instances of the use of the racial slur, and why post broadcast further action was not taken to edit or remove the programme from iPlayer,” said Davie.
The director general said contingency plans were made in advance about how to mitigate the risks that Davidson might involuntarily use offensive language during the ceremony, including briefing the audience, preparing lines for host Alan Cumming to read from the stage, and to bleep or edit out the strongest language.
David said the BBC will look in more detail at “why we did not pick up sooner that there had been two instances of the use of the racial slur, and why, post the broadcast, further action was not taken to edit or remove the programme from iPlayer. The BBC will learn lessons from this incident and ensure appropriate action is taken to avoid such an incident happening again.”
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