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Thursday, 24 September 2026
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We are but mere infants in the BBC’s eyes

The BBC clearly sees the value of television series That Mitchell and Webb Look. Marking the 20th anniversary of its original screening, the Beeb has re-released the series on iPlayer. But – and there is very often a “but” with these things – they’ve removed around 11 sketches from the BAFTA award-winning show. The official word is that these sketches don’t “work today”, which is polite speak for “they may cause offence”. The episodes singled out include scenes featuring a battle reenactment with characters in blackface, a contestant on a show wearing a burka and a lost tribe” in a garden centre. These sketches set out to challenge stereotypes, not to reinforce them; but 20 years on, this distinction seems to have been lost along the way.

I’m a bit uncomfortable about this. I find it infantilising, to say the least. Can’t we trust audiences to make up their own minds, to switch off if they find the sketches in question unpalatable? Does the BBC think that we are just passive consumers, unable to disaggregate the mocking of racism from racism itself?

This act of censorship is distorting – of the shows, whose narratives and rhythms were built to include these sketches, and more broadly too. Conversations we were having 20 years ago have been erased, as if to suggest that they never happened. But they did! And with this erasure, the opportunity for thoughtful engagement and learning from our past is gone. “Let’s just pretend we were all lovely 20 years ago. It’s better that way” seems to be the message. Speaking as a minority myself, I find that knowing the nasty stuff that people said before – and indeed, still say today – is much more useful than pretending it never happened.

This approach, I think, is also inconsistent. What it reveals is a cherry-picking (intended or not) of the groups that we can mock, and those that we can’t. Let’s face it, gender stereotypes are rarely deemed to have aged beyond the pale – if that were the case, we would have to wave goodbye to half the television made before the mid-2010s.

Suppression like this sends a bad message to artists, namely that what they’re creating today may hold less value tomorrow. Or, even worse, that future audiences may deem them bigots – that Sword of Damocles hovering over the heads of any creative paying attention to the discourse of the moment.

The BBC’s decision reaffirms a broader trend. In 2020, Little Britain was removed from the iPlayer platform for similar reasons. It has since been reinstated – minus some sketches. Meanwhile, the UK’s arts space more broadly is seeing a retreat to the land of “safe”, as Index recently revealed in a year-long investigation into self-censorship in UK theatre.

The BBC, it must be said, does remarkable stuff. The ongoing podcast investigation into the disappearance of US journalist Austin Tice is just one example. But this does not mean, however, that they don’t sometimes get it wrong. Chopping at That Mitchell and Webb Look is one example. Sure, the removal of the material isn’t the life-or-death story that Index often works on. Sure, Mitchell and Webb aren’t the faces of persecuted artists – they have huge platforms and agreed to the changes themselves. Still, one can’t help but think that the decision came from a place of conservatism, perhaps even fear.

This is weak and dispiriting, indeed the very opposite of what enables creativity in the arts. We shouldn’t be encouraging this cultural timidity. Rather, we should harness culture and creativity as the starting points of a conversation about our here and now.

That’s what the arts are for, after all.

Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** Index this week
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SLAPP SOLICITORS UNDERMINED

In response to a legal challenge brought against the regulator by Carter-Ruck and wealthy businessman and political donor Mohamed Amersi, the High Court ruled that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) cannot access legally privileged information during misconduct investigations. This is the taking away of a power that is vital for tackling SLAPPs and represents a threat to the idea that the regulator can hold the legal profession to their ethical obligations when it comes to these cases. Read our full reaction to this issue and why it matters on the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition website here ([link removed]) .

TIME TO RETHINK SERBIA

In a piece for Index this week, academic Branislav Radeljić looked at how the European Union should approach Aleksandar Vučić's Serbia. Amid crackdowns on dissent by Serbian authorities and vital elections now a month away, has the EU failed to pressure one of its candidate countries to uphold European values? Read that here ([link removed]) .

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** Coming up
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There is a lot to come from Index this week, as we continue to shed light on issues all over the world. Keep an eye out for news stories appearing on our website and short explainers on our social media accounts.

UKRAINE’S SECRET RESISTANCE

In the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, even ordinary expressions of Ukrainian identity are being treated as extremism. As surveillance intensifies and punishments become harsher, resistance has been pushed underground. Dr Jade McGlynn examines how censorship, counter-terrorism laws and cyber monitoring are driving resistance out of public view, and why the celebration of open defiance risks overlooking the immense danger that comes with defending Ukrainian identity.

THE LANGUAGE OF DISPLACEMENT

Israeli officials have described proposals for Palestinians to leave Gaza as “voluntary migration”. But can leaving truly be considered a choice when homes have been destroyed and returning safely may be impossible? Youmna El Sayed examines how bureaucratic language can disguise the truth behind forced displacement and why, for Palestinians, the words “migration” and “relocation” carry such painful historical weight.

THE FORBIDDEN BOOK SHOP

What happens when selling banned books becomes a crime? Bestselling French author Marc Levy joins Index CEO Jemimah Steinfeld to discuss his latest novel, The Bookshop of Forbidden Books, and the power of literature to challenge censorship. The conversation takes place in London on 30 September and will be followed by a book signing. Tickets are available here ([link removed]) .



** In case you missed it
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VENEZUELA TALKS

This week, Venezuela’s telecom regulator, Conatel, announced the “formal restoration of access to various national and international digital platforms and media outlets” – in other words, it was going to stop censoring news sites that had been blocked for years. This comes against the backdrop of ongoing talks between the government of interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez and opposition leaders. It’s worth pointing out too that the lifting of censorship restrictions is not complete. According to digital rights group VE Sin Filtro, at least 188 websites, including 79 news outlets, remain blocked.

WE NEED OUR “THREATS”
Last year, Indian filmmaker Anupurna Roy was awarded the best director prize in the Orrizonti section of the Venice Film Festival, for her debut feature Songs of Forgotten Trees. But according to media reports this week, the Mumbai-based filmmaker has been told that the film will not be distributed in India, after India’s Central Board of Film Classification determined that the film was “a threat to society”. Subsequent reports suggest that the matter is not closed. Index hopes that the film is cleared for release in India.

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** Flashback
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Marcos and the Media

E. San Juan Jr.
From the Index archive, 1978

There was a welcome development early on Thursday when US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to reinstate White House access for MS Now, Politico and CNN. Major US news outlets acted in solidarity with the banned trio after their press badges were revoked, a move Kelly said in his ruling was absent of “constitutionally adequate due process”. The temporary restraining order issued by Kelly, in place for 14 days, means journalists should be able to return to working at the heart of the American executive.

That doesn’t mean our concern ends there, however. Trump has repeatedly railed against criticism of his presidency, and it would not be out of character for him to try again in the future. What is particularly alarming is the Justice Department’s citing of “national security” risks to justify booting out reporters. CNN journalist Betsy Klein, who wrote a story about plans to build a “top secret” bunker under the Trump-venerated East Wing ballroom, had her pass revoked. But this came several months after the original story was published; her accreditation had been renewed in the intervening period.

Is this story a national security concern? It would seem odd, if so, given that the ballroom is being built on the very same complex, heavily defended by the US military, that already contains vital parts of the heart of the US government’s security apparatus, including a situation room or two. One feels that stories titled ‘“Army Builds Barracks On Base”, “Moon Contains Moon Rock” and “Dog Urinates On Lamppost” carry a similar shock value.

Or is there something more sinister at play? After all, citing the safety of the nation to justify press curtailments is straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

With that in mind, let’s head back to 1978 and Marcos’s Philippines. Intellectual, essayist and poet E. San Juan Jr. wrote for Index about the mechanisms that secured Marcos’ creeping control over the press.

Here is an excerpt:

More significant for the international press was the expulsion in November 1976, of Associated Press Bureau Chief Arnold Zeitlin, followed in March 1977 by the denial of a visa to Bernard Wideman, correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Washington Post.

How did Marcos engineer this unprecedented overthrow of what was widely considered 'the freest press in Asia' in America's “show-case of democracy”. What are the prospects of recovering rights of free speech and untrammelled ex-change of ideas without which genuine popular democracy is unthinkable?

Upon his seizure of absolute power, Marcos issued a Letter of Instruction No. 1 which ordered the Press Secretary and the Secretary of the Department of National Defence (DND) “to take over and control… all newspapers, magazines, radio and television facilities and all other media of communications, wherever they are so as to prevent their use for propaganda purposes which would tend 'to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in our government and aggravate the present national emergency”.

Dated on the same day, 22 September 1972, Marcos drew up a Letter of Authority No. 1, in accordance with Proclamation No. 1081 imposing martial law. This commanded the Press Secretary and the DND Secretary to allow the operation of the Marcos-controlled media, namely: “Radio Philippines Network, Kanlaon Broadcasting System(KBS), the Voice of the Philippines, Philippines Broadcasting System, and the Daily Express.”

Meanwhile. Marcos decreed that “pending the existence of the threat of subversion, communist or otherwise, the operation of all newspapers, magazines, radio and television networks shall remain suspended”.

Read more here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])


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Photos: (of BBC logo: Sebastiandoe5/WikiCommons; of the Ferdinand Marcos playing golf: Malacañang Palace/WikiCommons)

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