BBC partly upholds complaints over Bob Vylan Glastonbury set

The BBC have partly upheld complaints over Bob Vylan‘s Glastonbury 2025 performance.

READ MORE: Bob Vylan: “We’ve been screaming about these topics at the top of our lungs for years. Why has it taken this long?”

After investigation, the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has ruled that the broadcast of the controversial set broke editorial guidelines in relation to harm and offence. However, it has been cleared of breaching the BBC’s rules on impartiality and being likely to encourage or incite crime.

The set, which was streamed on iPlayer, saw the duo voice their support for Palestine, criticise Israel, and lead the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”.

Bob Vylan have since spoken out to defend the set numerous times. They’ve claimed it was vital to “teach our children to speak up for the change they want”, and reiterated that they were wanting the “dismantling of a violent military machine” – not calling for “the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group”.

Shortly after the festival, the BBC said it would no longer broadcast performances it deemed “high risk”. Around the same time, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy accused the BBC of having a “problem of leadership”.

The ECU said that the broadcast broke harm and offence guidelines because of the band’s chants against the IDF, their use of the slogans “From the river to the sea” and “Free, free Palestine”, and their references to a record company boss “in the most abusive terms”, using offensive language referring to “Zionists”.

The comments, “taken in the round”, could “fairly be characterised as anti-Semitic”, the ruling said. They did not decide, however, that the performance breached guidelines likely to encourage or incite crime.

Bob Vylan at the BandLab NME Awards 2022. Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

The ruling went on to say: “References to ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘From the river to the sea’, while viewed by some as implying the disappearance of the state of Israel, can also be regarded as no more than expressions of support for aspirations to a Palestinian state and do not of themselves threaten violent action.”

They added that while the “Death, death to the IDF” chant was “clearly more problematic… it is directed at an institution rather than individuals, and one which is not defined by ethnic or religious composition.”

They also said that, regarding the question of impartiality, coverage of a music festival does not have to meet the same standards as a news or current affairs programme.

“While recognising there is widespread disagreement with the political views expressed by Bob Vylan on this occasion, the ECU did not consider they represented a breach of the BBC’s standards of impartiality in this context,” it said.

BBC chairman Samir Shah said the decision not to pull the live feed after they made the on stage comments was “unquestionably an error of judgement”.

Director general Tim Davie apologised, saying: “I deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC.”

Bob Vylan recently addressed Lorna Clarke stepping down from her role as the BBC’s director of music following the backlash.

“Lorna Clarke, a Black woman, was so quickly dismissed from her duties after Glastonbury,” they wrote. “Why? Someone had to fall and who easier to take it than a Black woman. But now [Davie is] getting grilled and is showing just how incompetent and bought HE is.”

As well as being dropped by their agency, Bob Vylan have had their US visas revoked and are currently under criminal investigation over the performance.

In a statement, Glastonbury organisers said they were “appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan”.

In other Bob Vylan news, an upcoming gig in the Netherlands was cancelled earlier this month after frontman Bobby Vylan was accused of celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

As for Bob Vylan’s future live dates, the duo recently announced a series of UK headline dates for 2025 – check out the full list of dates here, and get tickets here.

The post BBC partly upholds complaints over Bob Vylan Glastonbury set appeared first on NME.