BBC bosses haven’t done enough to stop another Bob Vylan scandal happening again, the Culture Secretary blasted today.
Lisa Nandy said she “isn’t confident” the broadcaster has put in robust processes to prevent a similar incident.
But she added that “significant progress” has been made in tightening up broadcasting guidelines.
The Beeb sparked fury after producers took five hours to remove footage of Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set from iPlayer.
The punk duo led antisemitic chants calling for “death death to the IDF”.
The following day British Jews suffered from a spike in antisemitic attacks.
When asked if she felt confident a similar incident won’t occur again, Ms. Nandy replied to LBC: “I can’t say that I’m completely confident about that at the moment, but I do acknowledge that significant progress has been made in the past few weeks.”
The Culture Secretary explained: “I’ve had a meeting and several discussions with both the Director General and the Chair of the Board, and they are implementing a series of changes in response to that event.”
“The Chairman described to me what happened as a catastrophic failure that resulted in broadcasting an anti-semitic death chant for several minutes to the entire nation.”
“They’ve recognised that that can never happen again.”
BBC Chief Tim Davie and Chairman Samir Shah are expected to be questioned by MPs about the numerous scandals affecting the broadcaster once the Commons reconvenes in September.
Labour MP David Taylor commented: “The BBC must present to MPs all the measures it has put in place to prevent a hideous scandal like the Bob Vylan broadcast from happening again.”
“The BBC has a way to go to regain the trust of the public and reach its full potential.
“I look forward to hearing from Tim Davie in September how he will restore trust in this precious, but far from perfect, institution.”
Ms. Nandy stated: “I’m certain the parliamentary culture committee, as demonstrated by the entire parliament, will have many questions to ensure that the public can trust the BBC to avoid finding itself in this position again.”
