BBC Upholds Complaints Over Racial Slur in Baftas Broadcast
The broadcast of a racial slur shouted during the Bafta Film Awards violated the BBC's editorial standards, according to a ruling by the corporation's executive complaints unit (ECU).
During the event in February, a Tourette's campaigner involuntarily shouted a racial slur while actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting one of the categories. The slur was not removed from the televised broadcast, which aired on BBC One with a two-hour delay, and the ceremony remained available for streaming on until the following morning.
On Wednesday, BBC chief content officer Kate Phillips stated that the ECU "found this should not have made it to air and it was a clear breach of our editorial standards." However, she also noted that the ECU "found the breach was not intentional."
The ECU received "a large number of complaints" regarding the BBC's Baftas coverage and upheld those related to editorial standards on harm and offence.
Last month, outgoing director general Tim Davie expressed that the BBC "profoundly regrets" the incident, adding that the editing team had not heard the word and did not intentionally allow it to be broadcast.
Serious Mistake
The ECU's findings stated:
"The ECU found that the inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast (which was also streamed live on ) was highly offensive, had no editorial justification and represented a breach of the BBC's editorial standards, but that the breach was unintentional."
Phillips explained that "the production team did not hear the n-word at the time it was said and therefore no decision was taken to leave the word within the broadcast."
She added:
"The ECU accepted this was a genuine mistake, especially as the team did correctly identify and edit out a subsequent use of the same word, in line with the protocols that were agreed in advance of the event regarding offensive and unacceptable language."
The ECU also criticized the decision to keep the coverage on until Monday morning, describing it as a "serious mistake" that breached guidelines.
The report stated:
"The fact that the unedited recording remained available for so long aggravated the offence caused by the inadvertent inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast."
Phillips commented:
"There was a lack of clarity among the team present at the event as to whether the word was audible on the recording. This resulted in there being a delay before the decision was taken to remove the recording from .
The ECU has been clear that this was a serious mistake and commented that the fact the unedited version stayed up overnight made the severe impact of the inadvertent inclusion of the n-word worse."
She emphasized that the BBC "must learn from our mistakes and ensure our processes are as robust as they can be," outlining measures to improve pre-event planning, live event production, and takedown procedures.
Phillips also stated she had written to Lindo, Jordan, and Sinners co-star Wunmi Mosaku, as well as Tourette's activist John Davidson, to "apologise directly."
Mosaku told Entertainment Weekly she held "no hard feeling" towards Davidson but said the BBC's failure to remove the slurs caused her distress, keeping her awake and bringing her to tears.
Davidson remarked that the BBC should have "worked harder to prevent anything that I said" from being aired and questioned why he had been seated near a microphone.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy described the broadcast as "completely unacceptable and harmful," while Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called it "a horrible mistake."
Bafta ceremony host Alan Cumming apologized following the "trauma-triggering" broadcast.
Complaints About Speech Edits Dismissed
Separately, the ECU dismissed numerous complaints regarding the BBC's editing out of the phrase "Free Palestine" from an acceptance speech.
Director Akinola Davies Jr made the remark at the conclusion of his speech accepting the prize for best debut for My Father's Shadow. Davies Jr and his brother Wale, the film's writer, spoke on stage for approximately two and a half minutes, but their speeches were edited down to about one minute for the broadcast. The BBC explained this was due to time constraints.
The ECU supported this explanation, concluding:
"The production team's decision did not hinge on considerations of impartiality. The principal consideration was that approximately three hours of recorded material had to be edited to fit a two-hour transmission slot."
