{"id":507839,"date":"2026-03-01T18:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/507839\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T18:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:17:07","slug":"itv-censors-political-statements-at-brit-awards-including-free-palestine-f-i-c-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/507839\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV Censors Political Statements At Brit Awards Including \u201cFree Palestine\u201d &#038; \u201cF*** I.C.E\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Olivia Dean was the big winner at the Brit Awards last night, taking home four prizes, but some viewers expressed anger on social media following ITV\u2019s decision to censor multiple political statements from the broadcast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Geese drummer Max Bassin, on stage to collect the Group of the Year prize, ended his acceptance speech by saying \u201cI just want to say: free Palestine and f*** I.C.E.\u201d. ITV censored both his Middle East and U.S. oriented remarks by adding in crowd noise so they couldn\u2019t be heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More from Deadline<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier in the night, presenter Jack Whitehall made a joke about Lord Mandelson as he spoke to a table filled with political figures including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. That comment was also censored.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A source at the broadcaster initially told us that Bassin was censored because of his use of strong language\/swearing. When asked why the term \u2018free Palestine\u2019 was also censored the source indicated that precise edits of single words were difficult to achieve given the five second time delay between the live event and transmission, so both politically oriented statements were removed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">We\u2019ve asked ITV whether it\u2019s the broadcaster\u2019s policy to censor political statements at awards and arts events. We\u2019ll update once we hear back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Oasis band member Noel Gallagher saw his speech for Songwriter of the Year censored. After thanking his brother and his bandmates, he shouted: \u201cUp the f***ing Blues\u201d in reference to his beloved Manchester City. But the moment was banned from TV due to the use of a swear word.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Unimpressed watchers took to social to complain. One posted: \u201cFree speech and all that. Bleep bleep. #Brits2026.\u201d Another commented: \u201cI\u2019ve never known the Brits bleep out so much stuff? What is happening #Brits2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The edits come a week after the furore over the BBC\u2019s controversial decision to leave in an offensive racial slur in its broadcast of the BAFTA awards but to cut other comments made on stage such as Akinola Davies\u2019 acceptance speech which included the phrase \u2018free Palestine\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the BRIT Awards, Brit pop star Dean took home awards on the night for artist of the year, album of the year, pop act, and song of the year for Rein Me In, alongside Sam Fender, whose album People Watching the song features on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Best of Deadline<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.deadline.com\/signup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Deadline&#039;s Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Deadline&#8217;s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/31XsHSx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TkcoeG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TntOHq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Dean was the big winner at the Brit Awards last night, taking home four prizes, but some&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[77604,132466,49,48,202221,75,23917,2835,121155,202222,563,87875,23156,202220],"class_list":{"0":"post-507839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-acceptance-speech","9":"tag-brit-awards","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-culture-secretary-lisa-nandy","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-geese","15":"tag-itv","16":"tag-jack-whitehall","17":"tag-lord-mandelson","18":"tag-manchester-city","19":"tag-olivia-dean","20":"tag-palestine","21":"tag-political-statements"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}