In further case of censorship, the BBC deny Palestine’s right to exist

It seems that the Mic Righteous controversy, in which the BBC censored the words ‘Free Palestine’ from his freestyle on 1Xtra radio, has opened a can of worms the BBC cannot ignore for much longer.  Just one day after they released an official response to the hundreds of complaints over the drowning out of the term ‘Free Palestine’, a further case of censorship has emerged.  On the very same radio segment, ‘Fire in the Booth’ with DJ Charlie Sloth, just a couple of months after the Mic Righteous freestyle, rapper Bigz made a guest appearance.  Over a commercial hip-hop beat, he rhymes:

“Come on Joe, who you know as hard as this?  Bringing more fire than the -”

And then silence.  The term he used at the end of the line, ‘Gaza Strip’, has been censored out.  Not a political statement, not a humanitarian statement, but the name of a geographical piece of land.  A simple description of a place that does exist.  The BBC’s seeming submission to the Zionist lobby has taken precedence over common sense.  The BBC seem intent on completely eradicating any recognition of Palestine’s right to exist from their radio broadcasts, but their actions have had the opposite effect.

In a strong show of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, the BBC 1Xtra Facebook and Twitter have been flooded with page upon page of comments protesting against the blatant censorship.  Every single time the radio station make any ‘status update’ online now, even if it’s content is completely unrelated, the floodgates are opened.  ‘Free Palestine!’  ‘Don’t Censor Palestine!’  Some comments are demanding the BBC re-broadcast the Mic Righteous freestyle, this time un-edited.  Many are demanding to hear Lowkey’s popular single ‘Long Live Palestine’ on radio; despite once reaching number one in the iTunes hip-hop chart, the song was consistently ignored by BBC radio.

In response to the outcry over the Mic Righteous censorship, the BBC have said “All BBC programmes have a responsibility to be impartial when dealing with controversial subjects and an edit was made to the artist’s freestyle to ensure that impartiality was maintained.”  Not only does the brevity of the statement seem slightly insulting, considering a lengthy response to complaints that an episode of ‘Family Guy’ was aired slightly later than usual, but also, in the case of the Bigz censorship, the explanation holds no water.

On the very same show, DJ Charlie Sloth played a Bigz track entitled ‘I Just Want The Paper’.  In the song he raps:

“Chilling on a beach… Tel Aviv”

Guess what, the words ‘Tel Aviv’ are not censored out.  If you were to propagate the ridiculous argument that you are censoring out the words ‘Gaza Strip’ in the name of impartiality, then why would the words ‘Tel Aviv’ not recieve the same treatment.  However, to target Charlie Sloth, the host of the show, would be to completely miss the point.  Ironically, most BBC hip-hop DJ’s will never face the wrath of the political censors, because they have already fallen into line.  Charlie Sloth is paying a service to hip-hop music, and to hip-hop culture, by stretching the boundaries of ‘acceptable dissent’.

Censoring out political messages or even, it seems, geographical locations, does not lie with a radio DJ, it goes right to the top.  Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, has a lot to answer for.

Recent Posts on Notebook

• The Road to the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc - Majorca 70.3 Ironman
• The Retail Ready People project means the future of the high street is in your hands
• Don't get mad about Amazon and make the right ethical choice
• Chagos: Conservationists are swimming in murky waters
• Justin Webb on the medical advances in tackling heart disease

• Fire_Brand

  Mark Thompson is married to Jane Blumberg, a Zionist.  In November 2005 both Thompson and his wife visited Ariel Sharon (is he dead yet?) the notorious butcher of Beirut indicted by the Israeli Supreme Court, on public money under the guise and lies of doing a programme.  That is truly repugnant.  They disallowed the DEC campaign broadcast for the pounding of Gaza by Israeli bombs under the blanket lie of being “impartial”.

  Friends who I know at the BBC are terrified of ever stating the truth or mentioning Palestine as pro-Zionist policy comes from the top – from Mark Thompson who takes direction from his wife and her powerful Zionist lobby friends.  This is all done on public money to effectively support oppression, illegal occupation, terror and land expropriation.

  Palestine will be free.

• http://twitter.com/wheyaye83 David Lienard

  Many years ago, 1969/74, the Prime Minster of Israel was Golda Meir. During that time she made many concessions to Palestine in various meetings which created a lot of enemies within her own party. She faced tremendous opposition from inside the Knesset, and barely scraped through vote after vote of no confidence, in opposition to her attempts to create peace between Palestine and Israel. All her efforts fell apart when the Arab countries invaded Israel in 1973. This attempted invasion was the last straw. Golda Meir was sacked, and more belligerent leaders took over.  She only lived a few years after that. Friends claimed that she never got over the loss of her dream of a united Israel/Palestine country, co-existing together, and that this was probably the cause of her death. she did say, in an interview shortly before her death, that it would be almost impossible for Israel to live in peace with Palestine while organisations like Hamas and Arafat’s thugs were acive, because those organisations didn’t want peace, they wanted to wipe Israel out of existence!!!

• http://twitter.com/Guadalquivir15 Pili

  Thought we had “Democracy & Freedom of Speech” in the UK!!! …so obviously “NO” and then yet we are paying “TV licence” enforced to be able to receive BBC News & Programmes chosen for us and painted the colours they wish and viewed from the angle they dictate us to?

• Archemedes

  Is BBC throwing in its lot with the oppressors of Palestine?
   
  Palestine has been conquered but BBC must not co-operate with the conquerors and oppressors.  BBC must strike a blow for the oppressed and call a spade a spade!

  Hardy

• Archemedes

  Palestine has been conquered and is being oppressed.

  If BBC does not even acknowledge the word Palestine, it is throwing in its lot with the oppressors.

  We must not deny the holocaust.  Equally, we must not deny Palestine its name!

  Shame on you BBC!

• http://twitter.com/jodymcintyre Jody McIntyre

  The day after this article was published, the Bigz freestyle was re-uploaded - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WB-kGaaXw - this time with the words ‘Gaza Strip’ uncensored!  When will the Mic Righteous freestyle follow suit?

• Old Git Tom

  You have a Zionist view of history! What kind of ‘moderates’ murdered Count Bernadotte, British civilians & soldiers, & then Palestinians, in order to originally secure the land exclusively for European immigrants in thousands? Zionism may feign moderation at times, but the driving ratchet has consistently been fanatical land-grabbing backed by violence.

  Please read Robert Fisk’s recent articles. Tel Aviv nurtured Hamas to counter Fatah. It & its Zionists are happy to scream “Destruction of Israel”. What this spin hides is the necessity of dissolving the ‘Jewish’ state (whatever that is), in order to have a bipartisan peace agreement. Actually, that is the last thing Zionism wants.   OGT

• ksuzt

  I’ve had a thread on the BBC messageboard about it’s censorship and bias against Palestine but no one, except apologists for Israel, have show any interest in joining in! Not even the PSC. Help me out here! Under user KST.