Sideman quits Radio 1Xtra over BBC’s use of slur

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BBC 1Xtra DJ Sideman has quit the station over the use of a racial slur in a BBC News report.

Sideman, real name David Whitely, said in a statement the “action and the defence of the action feels like a slap in the face of our community”.

The N-word was used in full in a report about a racially aggravated attack in Bristol, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel.

The BBC later defended the use of the slur but accepted it caused offence.

More than 18,600 complaints have been made to the BBC over the broadcast.

The corporation said it wanted to report the word allegedly used in the attack, and this decision was supported by the family of the victim.

In a video on Instagram, Sideman said: “I’ve thought long and hard about what I’m about to say and what it means. And on this occasion I just don’t think that I can look the other way.”

The BBC report, which aired on Wednesday 29 July, described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg.

He had been hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol. He suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.

Police said the incident is being treated as racially aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.

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