The BBC has apologized for not editing out a racial slur from the tape-delayed broadcast of the BAFTA Film Awards and will remove it from the version of the ceremony on iPlayer.
The rant was made by John Davidson, an activist with Tourette syndrome who was also the subject of the biographical film “I Swear,” who was sitting in the audience during the ceremony. Davidson’s condition causes involuntary vocal tics, including the N-word, which occurred when actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the stage to accept the award for best visual effects, which ultimately went to “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
After removing the BAFTA Film Awards from iPlayer early on Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the BBC said: “Some viewers may have heard strongly offensive language during the BAFTAs ceremony. This resulted from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome and was unintentional as explained at the ceremony. We apologize that this was not edited before broadcast and BBC iPlayer It will be removed from the above version.
The remark was barely audible over the noise of the ceremony, but was picked up by the BBC. Of particular note was the fact that the broadcast was run on a two-hour tape delay before being broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer. This buffer is what editors typically use to capture and remove exactly this kind of material.
Last summer, the BBC faced huge controversy when it aired a Glastonbury Festival performance by punk-rap duo Bob Villain. At the time, the band led the crowd in chants of “Death to the IDF” on the iPlayer livestream. The footage remained online for more than five hours before being removed. In the aftermath, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanded answers from the BBC, and the company subsequently revised its live streaming protocols accordingly.
