BBC Apologizes to Jewish Community, Announces New Policy After Glastonbury

The BBC issued a pair of statements apologizing for the antisemitism that came out of the 2025 Glastonbury Festival broadcast over the weekend.

It’s not an understatement to say that the BBC has a serious antisemitism problem right now. This isn’t the first incident and it certainly won’t be the last. I would not be the least bit surprised if there are other acts of antisemitism taking place at the BBC and not being publicized.

The media needs to get better when it comes to how they deal with antisemitism. I don’t just say this as a member of the press, but as a Jewish member of the press. Trust is something that I take very seriously. It’s not unfair to say that outlets like the BBC have lost my trust. There are others, too, for being lax against antisemitism and it’s infuriating right now. Statements are fine and all, but it’s only through actions that these outlets have any chance to regain the trust they lost. This is something that requires serious acts of teshuvah. Only in time will we see if the BBC is truly on the right path again.

The first statement is from BBC Board Chair Samir Shah regarding Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC:

“I’d like first of all to apologise to all our viewers and listeners and particularly the Jewish community for allowing the “artist” Bob Vylan to express unconscionable antisemitic views live on the BBC.

“This was unquestionably an error of judgement. I was very pleased to note that as soon as this came to the notice of Tim Davie – who was on the Glastonbury site at the time visiting BBC staff – he took immediate action and instructed the team to withdraw the performance from on demand coverage.

“The BBC Board met on Tuesday to hear what actions will now be taken. The Executive have agreed to put in place a set of strengthened editorial practices and policies for live music programming. These will be important measures to safeguard future live broadcasts from a failure such as this.

“I am satisfied that the Executive is initiating a process to ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible for the failings in this incident. While it is important that the process is carried out fairly and correctly, it is equally important that the Executive takes decisive action.

“The Board fully supports the Director-General and the swift actions taken by him and his team to identify these errors and address them.”

The second statement is the BBC statement on Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC:

We fully understand the strength of feeling regarding Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC.

We deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community. We are also unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at, or on, the BBC.

It is clear that errors were made both in the lead-up to and during Bob Vylan’s appearance. We think it’s important to set out some of the detail around the streaming of this performance.

  • Bob Vylan were deemed high risk following a risk assessment process applied to all acts appearing at Glastonbury. Seven acts including Bob Vylan were included in this category and they were all deemed suitable for live streaming with appropriate mitigations.
  • Prior to Glastonbury, a decision was taken that compliance risks could be mitigated in real time on the live stream – through the use of language or content warnings – without the need for a delay. This was clearly not the case.
  • During the performance, the livestream was monitored in line with the agreed compliance protocols and a number of issues were escalated. Warnings appeared on the stream on two occasions and the editorial team took the decision not to cut the feed. This was an error.

The Director-General was subsequently made aware of what had happened and instructed the team that none of the performance should feature in further coverage.

The team prioritised stopping the performance from featuring on demand. This meant that no downloads of Bob Vylan’s set were available on iPlayer or Sounds. However, the live feed, which was showing subsequent performances from other acts on the same Glastonbury stage, remained up until it was amended shortly after 8pm while teams worked on a technical solution.

Given the failings that have been acknowledged we are taking actions to ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible for those failings in the live broadcast. We will not comment further on those processes at this time.

Furthermore, as a result we will make immediate changes to livestreaming music events:

  • Any music performances deemed high risk will now not be broadcast live or streamed live;

  • Editorial Policy support will always be available on site at major music festivals and events, to improve compliance processes and the speed of available advice;

  • And we will provide more detailed, practical guidance on the threshold for withdrawing a live stream.

The BBC provided over 90 hours of performances with live streams from the Glastonbury Festival 2025 stages.

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Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.

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