BBC Trust rejects complaint for not playing full version of Ding Dong! as it was a ‘celebration of death’
The BBC Trust has rejected complaints made about censorship, following Radio 1 not playing the full song Ding Dong! The witch is dead after it hit number two in the charts days after the death of Margaret Thatcher.
The station played only seven seconds of the song, preceding it with a Newsbeat story explaining the context, because the song had the capacity to cause offence.
The BBC Trust has ruled that the Wizard of Oz song was an inappropriate "celebration of death".
The editorial standards committee said: "Aside from whether or not people had bought the song in order to express anti-Thatcher political sentiments, which listeners may or may not agree with, the song in question was clearly a celebration of death.
"Although it was not linked with to any real person when written, the committee believed that the song had clearly and unarguably gained association with Lady Thatcher."
A rival pro-Thatcher song, I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher by the Notsensibles, charted at 35 and was played in full, which led to a complaint that the BBC was not acting impartially.