[Salon] How the BBC covered the Turner Prize

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

How the BBC covered the Turner Prize

Summary: the BBC coverage of the Turner Prize ignored a key news element of the story and in doing so revealed that bias and partiality have infected the way the corporation treats the war against the Palestinians.

On 3 December the Turner Prize presented annually to a British visual artist was awarded to the Glaswegian artist Jasleen Kaur. She delivered a short acceptance speech which referenced efforts by the organisation Artists for Palestine UK to support the Palestinian people and draw attention to major Tate Britain donors who support the settler colonisation of the West Bank.

Kaur was among the more than 1000 in the arts community who signed a letter denouncing the genocide in Gaza and calling for the Tate to cut ties with the Outset Contemporary Art Fund which has funded Tate acquisitions and the Zabludowicz Arts Trust and Zabludowicz Arts Projects which sponsor Tate and lend works to its collection. The letter - whose signatories included three of the four 2024 nominees, two of its judges and more than sixty other artists closely associated with Tate - notes:

The Fund, the Trust and the Projects are all linked to companies which sustain and develop Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank. The rewards from settler-colonialism materially benefit Tate; the collusion of Tate with Outset and Zabludowicz normalises occupation.

One would be forgiven for thinking that such a prominent protest involving so many British artists would justify coverage from the BBC’s culture and media editor Katie Razzall. But on the day of the awards ceremony Razzall made no mention of the letter nor of a planned protest that evening outside the Tate.

The BBC News channel carried Kaur’s acceptance speech with Razzall stating at its conclusion that Kaur was “obviously expressing personal opinions and views.” In the follow up interview which was carried on the BBC’s News at Ten Razzall made no mention of the speech which the artist had delivered wearing a scarf in the colours of Palestine. The scarf was gone when it came to the interview.

Why did Razzall an experienced and at times formidable journalist walk away from the story? Was it a case of self-censorship, a display of bias on her part or was she instructed to steer clear of Palestine by an editor? Those questions are not likely to be answered but what is evident is that the BBC under the guidance of its Director General Tim Davie and his doctrine of impartiality has veered into partial and biased reportage of the Turner Prize 2024.

The Scottish artist, Jasleen Kaur, has been named as the winner of the 2024 Turner Prize

Here is Jasleen Kaur’s speech in its entirety which Artists for Palestine UK chose - whether by design or accident - to format as a poem:

To the artists, the poets, the parents,
the students who show me the slow and meticulous
work of organising and world building

the folk who orient their lives towards
freedom in practice

not theory

who advocate for life, not death.

Last week I heard Fred Moten say
that there's a difference

between the _expression_ of solidarity
and the practice of solidarity.

and the practice of solidarity

is something that people will have to engage
with where they are.

From where I am now

I want to echo the calls of the protesters
outside

[Applause]

a protest made up of artists

culture workers,
staff, students who I stand firmly with.

They've gathered to make visible
the demands of the open letter signed by,

when I last checked, one thousand three hundred and ten signatories
in just a week calling for you Tate
to sever ties with organisations

complicit in what the UN and ICJ

are finally getting closer to saying
is a genocide of the Palestinian people.

This is not a radical demand.

This should not risk an artist’s career
or safety.

We're trying to build consensus
that the ties to these organisations
are unethical.

Just as artists said with Sackler.

I've been wondering
why artists are required to dream up
liberation in the gallery
but when that dream meets life
we are shut down.

I want the separation
between the _expression_ of politics
in the gallery and the practice of politics
in life to disappear.

I want the institution to understand that
if you want us inside
you need to listen to us outside.

We needed a ceasefire
a very long time ago.

We need a proper ceasefire now
arms embargo now. Free Palestine.

The day after the awards ceremony the IDF carried out attacks on Al Mawasi camp a designated humanitarian space in the south of Gaza. At least 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded. The camp is home to tens of thousands of desperate people among them the teacher Hasan Ramadan whom we featured in our 25 September podcast.

Amnesty International has just released a report stating that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a genocide. Israel has responded by labelling the report an anti-Semitic attack. In a statement the country’s foreign ministry said “The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.”

Arab Digest was able to reach Hasan Ramadan yesterday. He and his family are safe but he told us that there was an explosion no more than five meters away from their tents and that a piece of shrapnel had shredded the corner of one of the tents. Fortunately no one was in that particular corner. “My kids are scared. I talk to them to calm them down but everyone is afraid.” Hasan said that the food and water crisis has gotten worse. As winter bites they are sheltering in their tents with only thin blankets to try and stay warm. He said he and his family are living in a hell that words cannot suffice to describe.

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