BBC admits Bob Vylan was deemed ‘high risk’ before Glastonbury controversy

BBC director-general Tim Davie has said punk duo Bob Vylan was deemed ‘high risk’ before their controversial Glastonbury set was livestreamed.

Bob Vylan’s performance was livestreamed on the BBC last week and ended in chants including ‘death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]’ alongside various pro-Palestine slogans.

The duo have faced criticism from various figures including cultural secretary Lisa Nandy and have since defended their performance.

The BBC issued a statement sharing its regret at not ending the livestream at the time (Irish rap trio Kneecap’s set had been pre-emptively pulled from the livestream with an edited version available on catch-up)

Now, Davie has added he ‘deeply regrets that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community’.

He continued: ‘[Bob Vylan was] deemed high risk following a risk assessment process applied to all acts appearing at Glastonbury.

‘Seven acts including Bob Vylan were included in this category and they were all deemed suitable for live streaming with appropriate mitigations.

‘Prior to Glastonbury, a decision was taken that compliance risks could be mitigated in real time on the live stream – through the use of language or content warnings – without the need for a delay. This was clearly not the case.’

According to Davies the performance was monitored in line with ‘agreed compliance protocols’ and while ‘warnings’ appeared on the screen twice, it was an ‘error’ to not end the livestream.

A decision was made to not feature the coverage in any further content.

He concluded: ‘”Given the failings that have been acknowledged we are taking actions to ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible for those failings in the live broadcast. We will not comment further on those processes at this time.”

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