Delroy Lindo was mid-step when it happened. He and Michael B. Jordan had just walked out to present the Best Visual Effects award at Sunday night's Bafta ceremony, and an audience member shouted the n-word at them. Lindo stopped. Took it in. Then kept walking, because what else do you do on a stage in front of hundreds of people with cameras rolling.

That moment made the BBC broadcast. What did not was a filmmaker saying 'free Palestine.'

Akinola Davies Jr. won the Outstanding British Debut award for My Father's Shadow alongside his co-director and brother Wale Davies. Near the close of his speech, he dedicated the win to migrants, refugees, those living under occupation, under persecution, under dictatorship.

He ended with: 'For Nigeria, for London, the Congo, Sudan, free Palestine.' The BBC cut that part before it reached viewers at home.

The broadcaster's explanation,reported by Deadline, was procedural. A three-hour live event must fit a two-hour broadcast slot. Edits were applied across multiple speeches. All full winner addresses would be available on Bafta's YouTube channel. Fine. That is a real constraint and a defensible one.

Less defensible is the fact that the same broadcaster, with a two-hour pre-recorded delay and full editorial control, let a racial slur go to air.

Sinners star Michael B. Jordan stops for fans on the#EEBAFTAsred carpet💫pic.twitter.com/eqdWjh4zdU

John Davidsonhas Tourette's syndrome. He is also the subject of the British biopic I Swear, nominated at Sunday's ceremony, which is how he came to be sitting in the Royal Festival Hall that evening. His attendance was not a surprise. Producers knew he would be there. The BBC knew. The audience was told before the show began that involuntary verbal tics were possible.

Davidson himself had spoken toCNN on the red carpetbeforehand, explaining that crowded, high-pressure settings tend to intensify his condition. Nobody was caught off guard.

When Jordan and Lindo took the stage, Davidson shouted the n-word. The room had been prepared for something like this. Host Alan Cumming acknowledged the 'strong and offensive language,' reminded the audience that Tourette syndrome is a disability and tics are involuntary, and offered an apology 'if you are offended tonight.'

Source: International Business Times UK