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.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy[/caption]
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.
Asked if she felt assured a similar incident won’t happen again, Ms Nandy told LBC: “I can’t say that I’m currently confident about that, but I do recognise that there’s been significant progress that has been made in the last few weeks.”
The Culture Secretary added: “I’ve had a meeting and several discussions with both the Director General and the Chair of the Board, and they are making a whole series of changes in relation to that.
“What the Chairman himself described to me as a catastrophic failure that led to them broadcasting an anti semitic death chant for several minutes to the entire nation.
“They’ve recognised that that can never happen again.”
Beeb Chief Tim Davie and Chairman Samir Shah are due to be grilled by MPs on the multitude of scandals engulfing the broadcaster when the Commons returns in September.
Labour MP David Taylor said: “The BBC must set out to MPs in full the measures it has taken to ensure such a hideous scandal as the Bob Vylan broadcast can never happen 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 said: “I’m sure the (parliamentary) culture committee, as the whole of parliament has shown, will have a lot of questions to ensure that the public can have confidence that the BBC won’t find itself in this situation again.”
