Davie: BBC aired ‘antisemitic broadcast’ with Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury show

BBC director general Tim Davie has admitted the corporation aired “an antisemitic broadcast” with its coverage of Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury Festival performance.

Appearing before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Westminster, Davie said that broadcasting the concert, at which the lead singer led chants of ‘death, death to the IDF’ was  a “very significant mistake”.

He added, “I knew absolutely that it was an antisemitic broadcast.  I mean, the BBC made a very significant mistake.”

Davie told the MPs he had arrived at the festival himself in June at around 5pm, a couple of hours after Bob Vylan’s concert had been aired by the BBC.

He added:”I don’t think I misread it, I just got there when I heard about it (at) about five o’clock … the performance was well done by then, and at that point I knew absolutely that it was an antisemitic broadcast.

“So, my decision to get that off on demand, simple as that, I mean, it wasn’t too complicated in my mind, and to your point, I do think it was deeply disturbing, deeply disturbing.

“I mean, personally, I’ve talked to many people about this, I thought was deeply disturbing what happened, I mean, the BBC made a very significant mistake, very significant, in broadcasting that.

“But you know the fact that those words were broadcast to that broad audience, it was frankly to your point, it was disturbing.”

Discussing the BBC’s response to the decision to broadcast Bob Vylan’s performance, Davie confirmed that those responsible were facing an ongoing process.

He appeared to suggest some of these individuals were experienced BBC staffers, and that they were upset by what had happened with the Glastonbury broadcast.

Davie later said that Israel not allowing journalists into Gaza is “unacceptable” while speaking to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

He said: “I think we should all say that not allowing journalists into Gaza is unacceptable and it really is … in my view, this is probably the toughest editorial coverage challenge we’ve ever had.”

The 58-year-old continued: “It’s really important that we all stand and say, ‘look we need access, because we can look at the story like aid centres or whatever and hospitals’, but there’s nothing like having a proper journalist with our standards on the ground doing the work.

“So I would ask us to get access and the idea that we can’t go into war zones is plainly absurd, because we’ve done that for years, and we know what we’re doing.”

He also told the committee  he thinks the corporation made the “right decision” to not air Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which was later shown on Channel 4.

Davie was asked by Labour MP Paul Waugh whether the BBC had been “over-cautious” in not screening it.

He replied: “No, I think we made the right decision, but I don’t think it’s news by the way from our side here, in terms of the work it’s current affairs.

“There’s a slight difference in terms of a doc … it’s fairly straightforward where we were, which is we were a little bit frustrated, because clearly the voice is the medics.

“We’ve given a lot of voice on our airways, by the way, and on our news coverage, to medics working in Gaza under extreme conditions and the terrible things they’re having to face, which is horrendous, but in this film it’s pretty straightforward.”

Davie said the BBC has “executed the recommendations” after a report found the corporation failed to disclose information about the child narrator’s father’s position within the Hamas-run government in the BBC’s Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary.

The film, produced by the independent production company HOYO Films for the BBC, was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it was revealed that the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

Davie said, “There are people who are facing consequences.”

He added, “It was a bad mistake. I think the report also says HOYO Films not disclosing that information was important to us.”

BBC chairman Samir Shah said: “It was a real mistake. What [the report] found was that we were not open and transparent about the relationship of the narrator to a Hamas official, which really does go straight to the heart of the BBC’s reputational risk in terms of being impartial and trustworthy.

“It was a sin of omission, which is just as serious as a sin of commission.”