More than 300 complaints that rapper Dave’s performance at the Brit Awards was racist against white people have been rejected by the UK media watchdog.
Ofcom received 309 complaints about the song Black, which the London musician performed at last month’s ceremony. But the watchdog said it was “likely to be within most viewers’ expectations of this well-established awards ceremony”. The track’s lyrics include references to “working twice as hard as the people you know you’re better than”.
During his performance, Dave also attacked tabloid coverage of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, criticised the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower fire, and referred to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “a real racist”.
The regulator noted it was “not uncommon for artists to express personal political views during their performances”.
Home Secretary Priti Patel defended the prime minister following Dave’s performance, telling BBC Breakfast: “I know Boris Johnson very well, no way is he a racist, so I think that is a completely wrong comment.”
Dave won the award for album of the year at the ceremony, which was shown live on ITV. In its latest update, Ofcom also said it would not investigate 535 complaints about a task on the recent winter series of Love Island.
After the show’s traditional “headline challenge”, viewers complained that Paige Turley was led to believe that her boyfriend Finn Tapp had been unfaithful.
The Islanders were asked to read out newspaper headlines with words or names omitted and were tasked with guessing the missing information.
One headline suggested Finn had had his “head turned” while staying in the show’s alternative villa, Casa Amor, with a new batch of female Islanders. He had in fact remained faithful to Paige.
“In our view, as a well-established part of this programme’s format to test the contestants’ relationships, it would have been within most viewers’ expectations,” Ofcom said.
Paige and Finn ended up winning the series. Elsewhere, the regulator also rejected 447 viewer complaints that said advice given by a guest identified as a “breastfeeding expert” on Loose Women on 13 February was outdated.
“In our view, it was made clear to viewers that her approach to breastfeeding was drawn from personal experience as a midwife and breastfeeding expert and did not represent official advice,” Ofcom said. “The discussion around women who struggle with breastfeeding was handled with sensitivity.”
However, the regulator confirmed it was investigating complaints that Sharon Osbourne was heard swearing during an edition of ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Osbourne did not realise her microphone was live when the show returned from a pre-recorded segment during its Oscars special on 10 February.
Source: bbc.com
