BBC Partly Breached Standards Over Bob Vylan Stream

The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit partly upheld complaints over its live stream of Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set, finding the broadcast breached harm-and-offence guidance because of chants including “death, death to the IDF”, “from the river to the sea” and “free, free Palestine”, and an abusive reference to a record executive as a “f***ing Zionist” that the unit said could fairly be characterised as antisemitic. The ECU cleared the BBC of breaching impartiality rules or of broadcasting material likely to encourage or incite crime, noting the festival context and that some slogans can be interpreted as political support for Palestinian statehood rather than calls to violence. The decision prompted strong criticism, described by some as a “whitewash”, and led to resignations and public apologies from senior BBC figures; the corporation also apologised for the error of streaming the performance and said it would avoid live-broadcasting high-risk acts. Bob Vylan defended their statements. The controversy has also had repercussions for the band, including being dropped by their agency and a cancelled U.S. tour after visa revocations.