The BBC’s broadcast of punk duo Bob Vylan’s performance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival has been found to have breached the corporation’s editorial standards on harm and offence.
Controversy erupted after the musicians chanted “death, death to the IDF”, referring to the Israel Defence Forces, at the festival in Somerset in June.
Their set was live-streamed by the broadcaster.
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit received four complaints about the performance.
They related to incitement to violence, terrorism or ethnic cleansing, hate speech and expressions of antisemitism.
The BBC has been cleared of breaching its standards of impartiality over its broadcasting of the performance.
Following the set, the corporation issued an apology to viewers, especially the Jewish community, and promised to take action to “ensure proper accountability”.
It also said it will no longer broadcast performances deemed “high risk” live.
The BBC admitted it had assessed the act as such before Glastonbury, but deemed it suitable for live streaming.
However, the broadcaster said this was “clearly not the case”.
Bob Vylan, meanwhile, released a statement saying they were being “targeted for speaking up”.
“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” the statement said.
It later emerged that the duo were already being investigated by the Met Police regarding alleged comments made at a gig at London’s Alexandra Palace in May.
One video showed a member appearing to say: “Death to every single IDF soldier out there as an agent of terror for Israel. Death to the IDF.”
Since then they have reportedly been dropped by their agency, United Talent Agency (UTA), which appears to have removed the group from their website, and have also been pulled from a number of concerts, including their US tour after having their visas revoked.
