The pinnacle of the BBC on Wednesday ordered a “fast-tracked” inside investigation into the “severe mistake” that noticed a racist slur aired in the course of the BAFTA awards.
BBC orders investigation
Tourette’s sufferer John Davidson, who impressed one of many successful movies, has mentioned he’s “deeply mortified” after shouting the N-word on the London movie and tv awards ceremony, which he mentioned was attributable to an “involuntary tic”.
He was heard shouting as Sinners actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan, who’re each black, introduced an award for particular visible results within the motion pictures on the ceremony.
The investigation will probe why the slur was aired regardless of there being a two-hour delay between filming and the published, and why it remained on the BBC’s streaming service iPlayer till the next morning.
“The BBC has been reviewing what occurred at BAFTA on Sunday night,” the broadcaster mentioned in an announcement.
“This was a severe mistake, and the Director-Basic (Tim Davie) has instructed the Govt Complaints Unit (ECU) to finish a fast-tracked investigation and supply a full response to complainants,” it added.
The probe was welcomed by Tradition Minister Lisa Nandy, who described the broadcasting of a racial slur as “fully unacceptable and dangerous”.
“The BBC should be sure that this by no means occurs once more,” she mentioned.
BBC’s troubles previously
The controversy comes after one other damaging episode in the course of the BBC’s Glastonbury pageant protection in June 2025.
Employees failed to drag a livestream of a efficiency by Bob Vylan after the punk-rap duo’s frontman led the crowds in an anti-Israel chant.
The BBC later apologised and mentioned it might not live-broadcast musical performances it deemed to be “excessive threat”.
Warner Bros raised considerations
Based on the UK’s home PA information company, movie studio Warner Bros was believed to have raised fast considerations in regards to the racial slur at Sunday’s BAFTAs and requested it’s faraway from the published.
However it might nonetheless be heard when it aired two hours later.
Tourette’s campaigner Davidson mentioned he believed the BBC ought to have “labored more durable” to make sure his offensive phrases weren’t broadcast.
“I’ve made 4 documentaries with the BBC previously and really feel that they need to have been conscious of what to anticipate from Tourette’s, and labored more durable to forestall something that I mentioned … from being included within the broadcast,” he advised US commerce journal Selection.
The BAFTA broadcast is the most recent scandal to hit the BBC.
Davie is because of go away his submit in April after he resigned in November over the modifying of a documentary about US President Donald Trump.
The president has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit in opposition to the BBC over the edit for its flagship present affairs programme “Panorama”.
Trump alleges the modifying of his January 6, 2021 speech made it seem that he had explicitly urged supporters to assault the Capitol, the place lawmakers have been certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.