WHAT THEY SAID
"The BBC wasted no time in placing labels upon us that did not, do not and never will fit."* London punk-rap duo Bob Vylan filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC on July 3, 2026, over the broadcaster's response to their Glastonbury 2025 performance.*
THE DETAILS
- At Glastonbury 2025, frontman Bobby Vylan led crowd chants of "Free Palestine" and "Death to the IDF" while displaying a backdrop stating the UN called the situation a genocide while the BBC calls it a conflict.*
- The BBC broadcast the set, then issued a statement calling the behavior offensive and apologizing to Jewish viewers, stating there can be no place for antisemitism at or on the BBC.*
- British police investigated but filed no charges; the U.S. State Department revoked the band's visas, and they were dropped from multiple festivals and a Gogol Bordello tour.*†
- Bob Vylan clarified their statements targeted a violent military machine, not any race or group of people.*
- The duo previously sued Irish broadcaster RTÉ for defamation over similar allegations and received an apology from a Manchester newspaper for quoting false Nazi salute claims.†
WHO IS RIGHT
Bob Vylan are right. The BBC labeled political speech against a military operation as antisemitism without evidence the band targeted Jewish people as a group, then used its platform to damage their career while British police found no criminal conduct worth charging.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The defamation case will test whether the BBC can prove Bob Vylan's anti-IDF statements constituted antisemitism or whether the broadcaster overreached in labeling protest speech as hate.
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