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.
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