UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy has welcomed a “full investigation” into the BBC’s broadcast of the Baftas and said she has raised the matter with outgoing BBC director general Tim Davie.
In a statement, Nandy said: “I share the serious concerns raised by so many people regarding the broadcast of a racial slur during the Bafta ceremony on Sunday evening [February 22]. As the public would expect, I have raised this matter with the BBC Director General.
“I welcome the launch of a full investigation by the BBC. Broadcasting a racial slur is completely unacceptable and harmful. The BBC must ensure that this never happens again.”
The BBC has said it is carrying out a “fast-tracked” investigation after failing to cut out a racial slur shouted involuntarily by Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, who is the subject of biopic I Swear. The tic occurred while Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award on stage. I Swear went on to win the lead actor and casting awards, with the lead Robert Aramayo also winning the Rising Star award.
The programme was edited down from the three-hour live show filmed two hours earlier that evening and broadcast without bleeping the slur. This version was available on BBC iPlayer for more than 12 hours before being taken down and re-edited.
The chair of the UK government’s cross-party culture, media and sport committee Caroline Dinenage has also written to Davie asking for “an explanation as to how the slur came to be broadcast in spite of a two-hour time delay”.
“We have previously raised concerns with you about circumstances in which the BBC has allowed deeply offensive language to be aired, notably the broadcasting of antisemitic language during the BBC’s coverage of last year’s Glastonbury festival,” stated the letter. “This latest incident raises questions about the extent to which lessons have been learned and about the controls and systems you have in place to prevent such incidents.”
Dinenage asked what specific systems are in place to prevent the broadcasting of such language, why the systems had failed, and why lessons had not been learnt and applied from last year’s Glastonbury coverage, in which Bob Vylan’s set broke editorial guidelines.
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