DUBAI: Music trade bodies have accused the BBC of making “arbitrary and disproportionate” changes to its broadcasting and streaming of live music events following the controversy around Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance.
During the punk rap duo’s set at the festival on June 28, they led the crowd in pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli military chants like “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF.”
The BBC livestreamed the performance in full leading to a backlash from the government.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie ordered the content to not be featured in any other coverage. However, due to a technical issue the stream was available on the BBC iPlayer for about five hours.
Davie and BBC chair Samir Shah have both apologized. The BBC said in a statement: “Warnings appeared on the stream on two occasions and the editorial team took the decision not to cut the feed. This was an error.”
Music industry trade bodies and experts now say the BBC is overreacting.
“The BBC is absolutely fundamental to the continued success of British music and particularly vital to supporting our new and emerging artists’ development,” said David Martin, head of the Featured Artists Coalition, a UK trade body that supports music artists.
The FAC supported the network’s public service broadcasting remit, which understandably came with responsibilities and standards, he said.
“If those standards have been breached, then there should be appropriate guidelines to follow. But the idea of preemptively grading artists according to their risk factor feels arbitrary and disproportionate and a dangerous step toward censorship.”
Such an approach could “curtail artistic freedom” and “inadvertently punish those who are simply expressing their views,” he said.
Naomi Pohl, general secretary of The Musicians’ Union, stressed the importance of the BBC and its role in the music industry.
“It’s such a shame there has been this shadow cast over this year’s Glastonbury coverage, because it has had fantastic viewing figures. It’s been all over iPlayer and people have been tuning in live,” she said.
“We need to talk to the BBC about it directly. But I don’t want to see any broadcasters now broadcasting fewer live events because they don’t want to take the risk. The whole of the music industry will be feeling that, because it’s so crucial to us to have the BBC.”
A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster stood by its decision to make changes to livestreaming music performances.
“We will continue to bring audiences a range of music performances, both live and on-demand and we respect artists’ freedom of expression,” the person said.
“However, Bob Vylan’s offensive and deplorable behavior on one of our Glastonbury livestreams was completely unacceptable and we are sorry it appeared on the BBC.
“This is why we have made immediate changes to livestreaming music events and these, alongside our editorial guidelines, will shape our plans going forward.”
