The BBC breached its editorial standards when it broadcast a 'highly offensive' racial slur during the Baftas, a review has found, and made a 'serious mistake' in not removing it immediately from iPlayer. The executive complaints unit (ECU) concluded that the inclusion of the N-word was unintentional but had no editorial justification.
The slur was shouted by John Davidson, a Tourette syndrome campaigner, as actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting an award for the film Sinners. The broadcast remained on BBC iPlayer overnight before being taken down.
The ECU found that the broadcast of the slur represented a breach of the BBC's editorial standards. It also said the failure to remove the content from iPlayer until the following morning 'aggravated the offence' and constituted another breach. The production team monitoring the live event did not hear or recognise the word because it was 'extremely indistinct', the review said.
BBC chief content officer Kate Phillips apologised directly to Lindo, Jordan and Davidson, and said the corporation must learn from its mistakes. 'We must ensure our processes are as robust as they can be – particularly around our event broadcasts,' she added.
Complaints that the BBC had wrongly edited out remarks including the words 'free Palestine' from an acceptance speech, especially in light of the slur being retained, were not upheld. The ECU said the editing was due to time constraints, not impartiality concerns.
The BBC said it is strengthening pre-event risk assessments and reviewing production setups for major live events to ensure effective monitoring. The process for removing content from iPlayer is also being re-communicated internally.
