• Friday, March 29, 2024

News

BBC apologises for allowing a caller to use the N-word eight times ‘live on air’

By: Pramod Thomas

THE BBC has apologised for letting a guest to use the N-word eight times live on BBC Radio London on Saturday(21).

The incident took place during a conversation about board games in thee show hosted by married couple Mandeep ‘Sunny’ and Gursharonjit ‘Shay’ Grewal.

“Since I have moved to London from Greece, I have played Monopoly with my friend,” the caller said, referring to National Monopoly Day last Friday(20).

“But in my country we play a game where you are a white nationalist and kill all the n*****s and gays.”

The BBC allowed the phone-in to continue, with the caller using the racist slur several more times.

The BBC provided an on-air apology but it uploaded the full episode to its Sounds platform.

Later, broadcaster Iain Lee criticised the show.

“Why did BBC London allow a caller on to say ‘I f***ing hate N-words and gays’ over and over again?,” Lee tweeted.

Listeners even called for Sunny and Shay to be reprimanded for their failure to cut off the conversation after the first use of the N-word.

“This was one of several malicious calls made to our local stations in recent days. We have now further strengthened our protocols around phone-ins and referred the matter to the police,” a BBC spokesperson told MailOnline.

Earlier this year, the BBC was criticised for the use of the N-word by white presenters in its programming.

Lucy Worsley, a TV historian, used the racist slur when quoting the words of confederacy supporter John Wilkes Booth, who went on to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

In another instance, social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin used the offensive term when covering the collision between a Honda Accord and a 21-year-old man in Bristol.

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