Dawn Butler MP complains to BBC over Baftas censorship and coverage of racial slur incident
Labour MP Dawn Butler has written to the BBC to demand an explanation in regards to its coverage of the Baftas.
The ceremony took place at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 22nd at 5pm, but didn’t air until two hours later, when the broadcast began at 7pm on BBC One.
The delay between the ceremony and live broadcast allowed the BBC to make edits to the coverage in order to fit the two-hour time slot on television.
However, it did not cut John Davidson, the inspiration for I Swear, who suffers from Tourette’s with coprolalia, shouting the N-word in the direction of Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan from the televised broadcast.
The BBC later removed the broadcast from iPlayer and apologised for airing the incident.
A spokesperson for the BBC said, “Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional. We apologise that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”
On the other hand, Akinola Davies Jr, who won the Bafta for ‘Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer’, had the segment of his speech where he said “free Palestine” omitted from the broadcast.
The BBC previously said of the editorial decision, “The live event is three hours and it has to be reduced to two hours for its on-air slot. The same happened to other speeches made during the night and all edits were made to ensure the programme was delivered to time.”
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Now, Butler, who represents the Brent East constituency in North London, has penned an open letter to the broadcasting corporation’s general director, Tim Davie.
After highlighting Davies Jr’s speech, Butler wrote, “The BBC chose to remove this portion of his speech in its entirety from the delayed broadcast.”
The Labour MP continued, “In contrast, when Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, two Black men, appeared on stage to present the award for ‘Special Visual Effects’, audio of an individual, who lives with Tourette syndrome, a condition that can involve involuntary verbal and physical ticks, shouted the N-word, an extremely offensive racist slur was broadcast to the nation.”
Butler noted that “you could see the physical intake of breath” from the Sinners actors, before stating “that pain was repeated to millions of people”.
She then wrote that the BBC “could have prevented this” due to the two-hour delay and deemed it “disappointing that this language was not removed prior to transmission, particularly when other content was edited out”.
Buttler added, “I understand that the BBC has since edited the iPlayer version to remove the racist slur, I would appreciate a written explanation as to why this was not addressed before the delayed broadcast, who was in the editing room, who made the overall decision and why Mr Davies Jr’s remarks were deemed unsuitable while the racist slur was initially left in.”
Far Out has also reached out to the BBC and has been told the broadcaster will not be adding to its previous statement.
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