ITV Censors Big Brother UK Housemate's Pro-Palestinian Shirt
🚨 | Last nights episodes of Big Brother and Late & Live are now reappearing on ITVX…
They have edited out Ali’s Pro-Palestine watermelon t-shirt, which was reported to ofcom by @/antisemitism… #BBUK
Before: After: pic.twitter.com/redkahzTqG
- sᴜᴘᴇʀ ᴛᴠ (@superTV247) October 23, 2024
An episode of Big Brother UK was pulled, edited, and re-uploaded by ITV so as to censor a housemate's Pro-Palestine t-shirt after the Office of Communications (Ofcom) apparently received complaints about anti-semitism from a pro-Israel lobbying group. When the episode was initially pulled, ITV cited it was for "compliance reasons".
How is this becoming the norm?
A Big Brother ( @bbuk) ‘housemate’ was seen wearing a T-shirt depicting the map of Israel as a watermelon-a symbol widely associated with anti-Israel sentiment. This graphic has caused significant distress among the British Jewish community, who… pic.twitter.com/NNaOOuojz0
- Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) October 23, 2024
We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We have been made aware that yesterdays BBUK has been removed because of compliance reasons
- ITVX Help (@ITVXhelp) October 23, 2024
And apparently the shirt has been taken away from housemate Ali Bromley. According to a Big Brother UK spokesperson, "All Housemate items are checked by our production team before they go into the Big Brother House to ensure they comply with the Rules and compliance requirements. Big Brother does not allow any personal items into the House that could be deemed harmful.
We regret that the implications of this particular item of clothing were not fully understood in our bag checks or prior to broadcast of last night’s show. We apologise to any viewers who have been offended by the broadcast and assure viewers that Big Brother was unaware of the implications of the image.
The item of clothing has been removed from the House. The Housemate has been spoken to and they have expressed that they are unaware of the implications and did not wish to cause any harm or offence. Any offensive messaging associated with the image does not reflect the values or beliefs of Big Brother.”
source: 1/ 2/3
The t-shirt (proceeds go to various charities for Palestinian relief)