BBC viewed Bob Vylan as high-risk before Glastonbury and could have cut feed, director general confirms
BBC director general Tim Davie has confirmed the broadcaster had the power to cut Bob Vylan‘s set at Glastonbury Festival last month.
During their Glastonbury set on the West Holts Stage, the punk duo led the crowd through a chant of “Death to the IDF,” referencing the Israel Defence Forces. They also chanted “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea”. As a result, an ongoing police investigation has been launched by Somerset and Avon Police.
In a letter responding to questions submitted by Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of MPs, questioning the BBC’s coverage of the performance, Davie admitted to errors by the broadcaster.
Davie clarified of the BBC’s presence on Worthy Farm: “There were 550 personnel working for the BBC at Glastonbury. Of these 328 were working for BBC Studios (camera crew, rigging, technical and production roles), 35 providing coverage for BBC News, and 187 other BBC public service, working across a wide range of roles, including technical crew, producers, presenters, engineers, runners, commissioners and compliance staff.”
When probed about whether any of those staff could have cut the stream showing Bob Vylan’s performance from the West Holts Stage, Davie responded, “Yes, there were individuals present at Glastonbury who had the authority to cut the livestream after appropriate consideration.”
Davie continued: “Those individuals had access to advice and support offsite should they have considered it necessary.”
While Davie refrained from revealing the exact number of staff who could have pulled the plug on the set, he confirmed they would ensure people who can offer “editorial policy support” will be at live music events in the future.
Elsewhere in the letter, Davie explained that Kneecap was viewed as a higher risk than Bob Vylan when the BBC carried out its risk assessment prior to Glastonbury. Kneecap’s set wasn’t broadcast live, but was later uploaded to BBC iPlayer with minimal edits.
Davie explained of the decision: “The risk assessment undertaken led to the BBC deciding that Kneecap’s performance should be recorded from the livestream, put through a compliance process and uploaded to iPlayer to be available on demand, but not streamed live.”
However, despite not making the decision to treat Bob Vylan’s set with the same caution as Kneecap, Davie said: “Other mitigations were considered and were put in place, particularly for high-risk acts, of which Bob Vylan was one of seven such acts.”
The BBC deemed Bob Vylan and six other acts a Category A risk, while Kneecap was placed in an even higher category, hence why their set wasn’t broadcast live. Going forward, Davie said any high risk acts would not be broadcast live.
The next major live music event set to be broadcast live by the BBC is Reading Festival in August, headlined by Hozier, Chappell Roan, Bring Me The Horizon and Travis Scott.
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