BBC Confirms Second Racist Slur Was Edited Out Of Its Baftas Coverage

The BBC has confirmed that a second racist slur was edited out of Sunday night’s Baftas broadcast, after the corporation has faced widespread backlash over its coverage of this year’s event.

In the last two days, the BBC has come under fire over the decision to include an uncensored slur in this year’s Baftas broadcast, which aired on a two-hour time delay.

Early on in the ceremony, Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson shouted the N-word after experiencing an involuntary tic while Sinners actor Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award.

This backlash was then exacerbated by the news that an acceptance speech by filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr had been edited to remove a message of solidarity with Palestine from the broadcast.

Eventually, on Monday afternoon, the BBC issued an apology, and confirmed that the use of the N-word was being removed from the version of the Baftas streaming on its iPlayer service.

The following afternoon, BBC News reported that a second slur had been successfully removed from the broadcast ahead of time, which a BBC spokesperson confirmed to be the case in an internal memo shared with HuffPost UK.

This memo, sent by the BBC’s chief content officer Kate Phillips, reads: “I’m so sorry that a racial slur was not edited out of our broadcast. We understand how distressing this was.

“Award attendees were pre-warned about the possibility of involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette Syndrome at the start of the show, and Alan Cumming addressed it during the broadcast. Of course, this doesn’t lessen the impact and upset.

“The edit team removed another racial slur from the broadcast. This one was aired in error and we would never have knowingly allowed this to be broadcast. We take full responsibility for what happened. When I was made aware it was audible on iPlayer, I asked for it to be taken down.”

A BBC rep also reiterated to HuffPost UK: “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 has been removed from BBC iPlayer.”

BBC News has claimed that the reason producers did not edit out the original slur was because they were working from a truck, and therefore missed the moment when it happened in the room, though this remains unconfirmed by Bafta and the broadcaster itself.

Meanwhile, after Delroy Lindo expressed his disappointment at the way Bafta handled the incident, a spokesperson issued a lengthy apology taking “full responsibility” for what transpired.

John also released a statement of his own, saying: “I am, and always have been, deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning.”