Was there a hate crime at Glastonbury?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The chants have been labelled antisemitic by the BBC and the organisation has since apologised for airing the performance – but Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has called for the broadcaster to be prosecuted, saying they, "should not be transmitting hateful material designed to incite violence and conflict". The police have now launched a criminal investigation into the Glastonbury performance.
What should the BBC have done and will they face prosecution?
Host Sarah-Jane Mee speaks to the former head of Channel Four News and Current Affairs, Dorothy Byrne, to understand what the broadcaster should have done differently. She also speaks to legal expert Joshua Rozenberg about whether Bob Vylan's performance constitutes a hate crime and if the BBC may be prosecuted for broadcasting it.
Producer: Natalie Ktena
Editors: Philly Beaumont and Paul Stanworth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Sarah J. Me on the Sky News Daily today. Now, the BBC produced hundreds of hours of |
| 0:06.4 | Glasbury coverage at the weekend, but now attention is just on a few seconds of it. As the Tories have suggested, |
| 0:13.2 | could the BBC have this weekend committed a crime by broadcasting a band, which it says was anti-Semitic? |
| 0:22.3 | The BBC was careful not to put the controversial band Knee Cap live onto the eye player at this year's Glastonbury. |
| 0:29.3 | That was after one of his members had been charged with a terrorism offence. |
| 0:33.1 | But it did broadcast the pro-Palestinian rappers Bob Villain live, |
| 0:37.9 | a duo already known for being fiercely political and provocative. |
| 0:42.6 | During the set, they had this to say. |
| 0:44.8 | We're seeing the UK and the US be complicit in war crimes and genocide happening over there to the Palestinian people. |
| 1:00.7 | Sometimes you've got to get your message across with violence |
| 1:04.3 | because that is the only language that some people speak, unfortunately. |
| 1:09.4 | But the big problem for the BBC is that the pictures and audio stayed on air when Bob Villain |
| 1:15.9 | then led chance of death to the IDF, the Israeli Defence Forces. |
| 1:22.1 | Glastonbury says those words do not represent the festival's values. |
| 1:26.4 | The band has since been dropped by their agents. |
| 1:29.8 | The BBC admits it should have pulled the footage. The police are now investigating if there |
| 1:35.4 | was a hate crime on stage. The Tories think the BBC might have committed a crime itself. |
| 1:42.8 | On this episode, what should the broadcaster have done differently? |
| 1:47.1 | And does the law apply, as the Tories have suggested? |
| 1:50.2 | The lawyer Joshua Rosenberg will be on with us shortly, |
| 1:52.6 | but first, former head of news at Channel 4, Dorothy Byrne. |
| 1:56.4 | Dorothy, were the clues all there for the BBC about this particular act? |
... |
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