BBC Rules BAFTAs’ N-Word Gaffe Was Editorial Breach

The BBC‘s executive complaints unit (ECU) has ruled that failing to censor the N-word during the BAFTAs broadcast in February was indeed a breach of editorial standards, according to Variety.

During Sinners actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo’s presentation of the evening’s first award, John Davidson, a white Scottish activist whose goal is to raise awareness for Tourette syndrome and whose life story was the subject of the BAFTA-nominated I Swear, was heard shouting the slur. The BBC apologized for the gaffe, but questions have lingered about why the network didn’t censor the word when it was working with a two-hour delay and censored phrases like “Free Palestine.”

Kate Phillips, the BBC’s chief content officer, is now saying that the ECU “found this should not have made it to air and it was a clear breach of our editorial standards,” with the additional caveat that the ECU “found the breach was not intentional.” Furthermore, Phillips called airing the word “highly offensive” and that it “had no editorial justification.” Phillips also said the network’s failure to edit out the word until Monday in the version of the broadcast streamable on the BBC’s iPlayer was a “serious mistake.”

So just how did the word make it to the air? Phillips says the producers “did not hear the N-word at the time it was said and therefore no decision was taken to leave the word within the broadcast.” The ECU now sees this as a “genuine mistake, especially as the team did correctly identify and edit out a subsequent use of the same word, in line with the protocols that were agreed in advance of the event regarding offensive and unacceptable language.”

During the broadcast, the awards show’s host, Alan Cumming, addressed the outburst. “The tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s syndrome has no control over their language,” he said. We apologize if you are offended.” Despite this, actors including Jamie Foxx and Wendell Pierce rebuked Davidson for the language.

In February, the BBC issued an apology on the Monday after the broadcast. “Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards,” it said. “This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional. We apologize that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”

Davidson also apologized on Monday for his outburst. He said he was “deeply mortified” when it happened and that he felt bad for anyone who thought his words were “intentional.”