BBC BAFTA N-Word Broadcast Breached Editorial Standards, BBC Says

The BBC has ruled that the BAFTA N-word broadcast breached its editorial standards but in a way that was “unintentional.”

The broadcaster’s Executive Complaints Unit had been examining the SNAFU over the past few weeks. At last month’s BAFTA Film Awards, the N-word was yelled unintentionally by Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson at Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan. This remained in the broadcast version of the show two hours later and on iPlayer for more than 12 hours.

The BBC probed why the slur was broadcast, why it wasn’t edited out from the broadcast version due to the two-hour time delay and how it remained on iPlayer for so long.

On the first two points it ruled that the “inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast (which was also streamed live on iPlayer) was highly offensive, had no editorial justification and represented a breach of the BBC’s editorial standards, but that the breach was unintentional.” On the third, it also ruled there was a “breach” and “the fact that the unedited recording remained available for so long aggravated the offence caused by the inadvertent inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast.”

“There was a lack of clarity among the team as to whether the n-word was audible on the recording,” the BBC said of the iPlayer element. “This resulted in there being a delay before a decision was taken to remove the recording from iPlayer; that decision was not taken until approximately 9.30 the following morning. In the ECU’s view, this delay was a serious mistake, because there could be no certainty that the word would be inaudible to all viewers.”

Ex-BBC Director General Tim Davie has previously said there was confusion as the slur was shouted a second time at Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku, which did get edited out of the BBC broadcast.

The BBC also threw out complaints around the issue of Akinola Davies Jr’s acceptance speech, which was edited for length including removing comments about Palestine. Regarding the speech, the BBC said the team’s “principal consideration was that approximately three hours of recorded material had to be edited to fit a two-hour transmission slot.”

The N-word debacle totally overshadowed the BAFTAs.

The BBC received more complaints about the incident than for any other broadcast since the Glastonbury crisis, in which Bob Vylan chanted “death to the IDF.” The fact the BAFTAs incident happened after learnings from the Glasto crisis had emerged was also not helpful to the BBC’s defense. It received 1,588 complaints from viewers who said they were “unhappy a racial slur was heard and that it was not edited out of the broadcast.”