BBC Forced to Apologise Following Shocking Tourettes Incident at BAFTAs
The BBC has issued an official statement following a viral moment at last night's BAFTA Film Awards where Tourette's activist John Davidson could be heard shouting racial slurs at presenters Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo.
The clip has gathered plenty of attention online, with opinions harshly mixed regarding the BBC's decision to keep the moment in the official broadcast. The broadcaster has now publicly apologized "for any offence caused by the language heard."
Davidson could also be heard shouting words such as "boring" and "f**k" throughout the ceremony in addition to the racial slurs directed at presenters. This was a result of Davidson's coprolalia, a symptom of Tourettes that causes involuntary utterance of offensive or inappropriate language. The words are neither chosen nor intentional.
The BAFTA Broadcast Had a Two-Hour Delay
Live television is always unpredictable, but the reason the BBC has faced such scrunity for this incident is that the BAFTAs weren't live–the ceremony was held two hours before it was broadcast.
This meant the BBC had ample opportunity to edit this incident out of the broadcast, but opted not to. To add to the controversy, the BBC did edit out several political statements during acceptance speeches (via Variety).
Presenter Alan Cumming also made an apology briefly after the exclamation was heard from the audience, explaining: "Tourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language. We apologise if you were offended."
Ed Palmer, Vice President of Tourette's Action, addressed the situation on the radio: "If it’s being pre-recorded now, then bleeping it out, for example, might be a reasonable compromise [...] It is important to show compassion and understand that it is involuntary. Causing offence is often very distressing to people who have this condition"
The Independent reports that attendees were briefed about Davidson's condition before the event, but this was not shown in the official broadcast.