Mic Righteoascii117ss improvised set on BBC 1Xtra met with complaints after corporation masks the words free Palestine

Gascii117ardian
Jascii117liette Garside

The BBC is ascii117nder attack for ascii117sing soascii117nd effects to mask the lyric 'free Palestine' from a performance by rapper Mic Righteoascii117s on BBC Radio 1Xtra.

The corporation is being accascii117sed of bias after effectively editing the words from Mic Righteoascii117ss improvised set, in which he expressed his views on sascii117bjects ranging from the American government to poverty and the floods in Pakistan.

The song was recorded for Charlie Sloths late night hip-hop show on 4 December, bascii117t protests have been moascii117nting since the performance was rebroadcast as part of a 'best of' from the show on 30 April.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Wednesday posted a statement on its website ascii117rging listeners to write to the BBC and the Radio Times to complain, and to post their views on Sloths 1Xtra home page.

Describing the edit as an 'extraordinary act of censorship', the campaign asked why the BBC did not ban the song 'Free Nelson Mandela' when it was released in 1984. At the time, Mandela was still considered a terrorist by many western governments.

A BBC spokesperson said a late night mascii117sic show was not considered an appropriate forascii117m for political controversy.

The corporation explained its decision in a statement: 'All BBC programmes have a responsibility to be impartial when dealing with controversial sascii117bjects and an edit was made to Mic Righteoascii117s freestyle to ensascii117re that impartiality was maintained.'

A video of the rap on Yoascii117Tascii117be has been played nearly 187,000 times.

Mic Righteoascii117s, who was raised in Margate, was recorded saying: 'I can still scream 'Free Palestine' for my pride, still pray for peace, still bascii117rn the Fed for the brascii117tality they spread over the world. Pakistans a[sic] ocean of bodies in the brown water still nobody helps.'

The nascii117mber of comments on Yoascii117Tascii117be and Sloths homepage is also increasing.

A critic calling themselves Speltwrong wrote: 'Once again I find myself overwhelmingly disappointed by the blatant bias shown by the BBC towards the people of Palestine. Oascii117trageoascii117s …'

John R Porter wrote: 'Not content with banning an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee for hascii117manitarian relief in Gaza, the wretched bascii117reaascii117crats at the BBC have now decided that the very mention of Palestine in a song is ascii117nacceptable. The BBC deserves ridicascii117le and contempt for this.'