Did BBC’s focus on one potential Glastonbury controversy miss another? | UK News

Last year the won a Bafta for its Glastonbury coverage. This year it’s being attacked for it. Or, to be more precise, for one hour of it, two at the most, if you count Kneecap’s set, which followed Bob Vylan’s on the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon.

I had arrived early to cover the Belfast rap trio’s performance, aware that the prime minister had said it shouldn’t go ahead, that the festival organisers had stood firm against political pressure, that one of the band’s members is on bail on a terror charge, which he denies, and that the had announced that morning it wouldn’t stream the show live.

I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of Bob Vylan. But I don’t imagine many others had either. Of the millions who tuned in to the ‘s coverage over the weekend, the live streamers of the Bob Vylan set would have likely been a tiny proportion.

But you’d have to have been under a rock (or perhaps partying too hard on a Somerset farm) not to have heard of the punk duo now.

As I stood in the crowd and caught the lead singer’s comments – about using violence to get your message across, and leading the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” – it was clear, as the festival’s organisers said afterwards, that a line had been crossed.

This was not the peace-loving, welcome-to-all vibe that Glastonbury tries to project.

Police have launched a criminal investigation into Bob Vylan’s set to ascertain if statements made on stage broke the law.

Some people in the crowd chanted “death to the IDF” back. They appeared to be on board. Bob Vylan also platformed the controversial “From the river to the sea” slogan.

Some use the chant as a call for Palestinian control of all land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel. Critics say the slogan is a call for the destruction of the state of Israel.

That interpretation is disputed by pro-Palestinian activists who say that most people chanting it are calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza, not the destruction of Israel itself.

I made a note at the time that from my vantage point, conversely that slogan did not get a great deal of reaction from the crowd.

The scrutiny has been on the band, the festival organisers and the . But where does the freedom of expression for the thousands in that Saturday afternoon crowd begin and end?

After Kneecap’s set, I spoke to fans in the crowd who supported that band’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war and were pleased that they were sending a message to the British government.

But I also spoke to Jewish festival-goers who told me they had to hide their identities at Glastonbury this year because they feared the response they might get. One told me in a place that is so optimistic and accepting of everyone, “there’s a difference if you’re a Jew”.

Both perspectives should be heard.

In that field on Saturday, it felt to me that the had spent so much energy on how it would deal with Kneecap at Glastonbury, that it had missed Bob Vylan’s potential to cause it problems. Sometimes, when you are focused on one potential controversy, another one arrives to bite you.

It could not have known exactly what Bob Vylan would say or do on stage. There are questions whether due diligence was done in the run up. I’m told it was. It’s the ‘s reaction as the set unfolded, and the perception it was too slow to act, that is a bigger problem.

I’ve covered quite a lot of ‘scandals’ in my time as media editor at News and as I look at the headlines across the media, and the bashing the is getting, I keep in mind that stories about the are often used by other media organisations as a stick to hit the corporation. And sometimes, there are other corporate interests at play for those who want to see a weaker for their own benefit.

But the has said it regrets not pulling the live stream during the performance. From memory, the comments came towards the end of the set, but there was still time to take action. It would have needed to have been a quick decision though. So if the team had to refer up for editorial advice, it’s possible the performance was already over – and it was later pulled from repeat viewing on the iPlayer.

The says it’s looking at its guidance around live events so that “teams are clear on when it’s acceptable to keep output on air”.

Freedom of speech, the freedom to express opinions and the right to artistic expression will have been in the ‘s mind as it went into the festival.

As the sea of Palestinian flags in the crowds at the performance illustrated, solidarity with the Palestinian people (and for some, the accusation that Israel is committing genocide, which it denies) is shared by many at Glastonbury and wider. The would not want to be seen to be censoring opinions.

Incitement to violence, though, isn’t an opinion. It can be a criminal offence.

Culture often holds a mirror up to politics and what has been playing out at Glastonbury is illustrative of the wider, heated debate raging across the country about what’s taking place in Gaza.

The Bob Vylan set has rightly begged questions of both the and the Glastonbury organisers, as well as the performers themselves. They were the ones who made the comments in the first place, although it’s right that the , as a publicly-funded organisation, faces scrutiny.

And in the contested times we live in, what’s happened has compounded problems for the corporation with its coverage of Israel and Gaza already called into question.

An investigation is ongoing into a documentary it already broadcast about the children of Gaza and another documentary about doctors in Gaza was dropped by the and will now be broadcast on Channel 4.