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BBC criticised over rap edit
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 16 May 2011
The BBC has come under attack after the words “free Palestine” were edited out of a performance by rapper Mic Righteous on a 1Xtra show. The freestyle rap originally aired in December, but appeared again in a best-of show at the end of April with the political statement edited out.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign issued a statement last week urging listeners to write to the BBC and Radio Times to complain about what they termed an “extraordinary act of censorship”, and to post their views on the webpage of the radio show on which the rap appeared, that of Charlie Sloth. Online comments objecting to the edit have since started to appear.
A BBC spokesman responded thus: “All BBC programmes have a responsibility to be impartial when dealing with controversial subjects and an edit was made to Mic Righteous’ freestyle to ensure that impartiality was maintained”.
