Featured Image Credit: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
Topics: BBC, Baftas, Michael B. Jordan
William Morgan
Topics: BBC, Baftas, Michael B. Jordan
The boss of the BBC has explained why the moment Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo suffered a horrendous racial slur was broadcast around the world.
Viewers were shocked when the broadcast failed to censor the involuntary slur yelled by disabilities campaigner, John Davidson, who lives with Tourette's syndrome, as the Sinners stars were presenting an award.
Not only was the N-word not censored during the live broadcast, but the recording of the February 22 BAFTAs show was left available on the BBC's iPlayer platform until the next day, before it was eventually taken down.
While this incident became a touchstone for talking about accessibility for disabled people and the impact hearing a slur has on people of color, we have since learned that it was not the only slur of the night directed at one of the Sinners cast.
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The N-word was also shouted at actor Wunmi Mosaku as she accepted the award for best supporting actress award, it has since emerged, but the crew were able to edit it out of the broadcast.
The UK's parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee issued the BBC with an urgent request to explain the offensive language heard during the broadcast, with the chair writing to the organization asking it to explain how they made it on the air despite a 'two-hour time delay'.
In a lengthy statement about the incident, BBC Director General Tim Davie responded: "I’d like to make clear: although the racial slur was symptomatic of a disability and an involuntary tic, it should never have been broadcast. It was a genuine mistake, and we take full responsibility for our error.
"Although this is the subject of ongoing review, our initial evidence gathering has found that no one in the on-site broadcast truck heard this when they were watching the live feed.
"Because no one in the broadcast truck was aware it was on the live feed, there was therefore no editorial decision made to leave the language in."
He also addressed the slur directed at Mosaku, adding: "In that instance, the edit team did hear the racial slur on the feed and removed it immediately from the version of the ceremony that would be broadcast later that evening.
"These two incidents happened within 10 minutes of each other. It appears that soon after the second incident, the edit team in the truck started receiving reports, including from Bafta, that a racial slur had been shouted during the ceremony.
"Our understanding at this point is that the team editing the show in the truck mistakenly believed they had edited out the incident that was being referenced, on the basis that they had heard and edited out the slur shouted out during the best supporting actress award."
"I was there and it was painful to have that celebration kind of really tainted for me," Mosaku said after the awards show. "I have no hard feelings towards John Davidson at all. He has a condition. I feel like Bafta has a lot of lessons to learn."
She told Entertainment Tonight: "That’s one thing, and then the BBC is a whole other thing. That’s the bit that really kind of kept me awake at night and brought tears to my eyes.
"I was like, you really chose to keep that in? I can’t understand it, and I’m not sure if I can forgive it."
Then, Director General Davie explained how crossed wires led to the N-word still going out on the broadcast, despite one slur being picked up by the team in the studio.
"Therefore, when they were told a racial slur had been shouted, they believed they had removed it," he explained.
Davie also explained how 'protocols' were put in place before the show to mitigate the risk of offense being taken with Davidson in the audience, whose condition means he had no control over the words coming out of his mouth.
He said the audience were informed about his Tourette's syndrome and writing a disclaimer for the host to read out should any offensive language be heard during the broadcast and that the BBC would edit them out.