Israel/Palestine

BBC statement on Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC

We fully understand the strength of feeling regarding Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC.

We deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community. We are also unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at, or on, the BBC.

It is clear that errors were made both in the lead-up to and during Bob Vylan’s appearance. We think it’s important to set out some of the detail around the streaming of this performance.

BBC senior staff told to 'step back' from duties following row

The BBC has told a small number of senior staff to step back from their day-to-day duties on music and live events, following the broadcast of Bob Vylan's controversial Glastonbury set.

The punk duo led a chant of "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]" and made other derogatory comments during their performance, which was available to watch via a live stream on iPlayer. In a statement, the BBC said there was "no place for antisemitism" in its output, and that it was taking action to "ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible" for the broadcast.

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The corporation's chair, Samir Shah, said the decision not to pull the live feed was "unquestionably an error of judgement".

Earlier on Thursday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the House of Commons she was unsatisfied with the BBC's response after she had asked questions about due diligence, senior oversight, and the delay in pulling the live feed. "Given the seriousness of what happened, and particularly we heard in the House the absolute shocking stories of the impact this has had on the Jewish community in this country - given the seriousness of this, I would expect there to be accountability at the highest levels [of the BBC]," she said.