EA Music Video Special: BBC Censors Rapper Mic Righteous's "Free Palestine" Lyric
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 13:54
Scott Lucas in British Broadcasting Corporation, EA Middle East and Turkey, Mic Righteous, Middle East and Iran, Palestine

The British Broadcasting Corporation has censored the lyric "free Palestine" in a performance by rapper Mic Righteous on BBC Radio 1Xtra.

The song was recorded for a late night hip-hop show on 4 December, but when it was rebroadcast on 30 April, a sound effect was added to mask the offending two words in the rap (at the 2:59 mark in the video above), "I can still scream 'Free Palestine' for my pride, still pray for peace, still burn the Fed for the brutality they spread over the world. Pakistan's a ocean of bodies in the brown water still nobody helps." 

The broadcaster defended its censorship: "All BBC programmes have a responsibility to be impartial when dealing with controversial subjects and an edit was made to Mic Righteous' freestyle to ensure that impartiality was maintained."

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