Photo Credit: K. Mitch Hodge
The BBC has issued a formal apology following the live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s controversial set at Glastonbury. The performance has triggered significant debate across the music industry and beyond.
The incident has prompted the BBC to overhaul its approach to live event coverage, particularly for acts that it deems are ‘high risk.’ During their set on the West Holts stage over the weekend, Bob Vylan’s frontman led the crowd in chants of “ free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF.” The performance was streamed live on BBC platforms and immediately drew criticisms from festival organizers, government officials, and advocacy groups who condemn the remarks as crossing the line into hate speech and antisemitism.
In response, the BBC released a statement expressing deep regret for broadcasting the performance live. “We sincerely regret that such offensive and unacceptable conduct was broadcast on the BBC and wish to apologize to our audience, particularly the Jewish community. There can be no place for antisemitism at the BBC,” the statement begins.
The BBC also acknowledged that Bob Vylan was classified as a ‘high risk’ act for broadcasting following a risk assessment applied to all Glastonbury acts. Despite this, the decision was made to proceed with the live broadcast of the set, relying on real-time compliance measures such as content warnings. The broadcaster admits that this approach was inadequate. Meanwhile, BBC Chair Samir Shah issued a separate statement emphasizing accountability for the incident.
“I’d like first of all to apologize to all our viewers and listeners and particularly the Jewish community for allowing the artist Bob Vylan to convey intolerable antisemitic sentiments live on BBC,” his statement begins.
“This was unquestionably an error of judgement. I was very pleased to note that as soon as this came to the notice of Tim Davie – who was on the Glastonbury site at the time visiting BBC staff – he took immediate action and instructed the team to withdraw the performance from on demand coverage.”
“The BBC Board met on Tuesday to hear what actions will now be taken. The Executive have agreed to put in place a set of strengthened editorial practices and policies for live music programming. These will be important measures to safeguard future live broadcasts from a failure such as this.”
The BBC will no longer live broadcast or stream any act deemed ‘high risk’ under this new editorial policy. Bob Vylan continues to face fallout as their U.S. tour has been all but canceled after the U.S. State Department revoked their travel visas for the country. They were also dropped from upcoming festival appearances in Manchester, UK and France.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.