A former BBC correspondent claims the BBC “buried” footage he took of Banksy at one of his mural sites in New York City.
Nick Bryant, who previously worked as a BBC correspondent in New York, detailed his encounters with the anonymous British street artist and political activist in a recent post on his Substack site.
After establishing a relationship with Banksy’s team while covering the artist’s 2013 residency in New York City for the broadcaster, Bryant said he “stayed in touch with his PR team.”
It was a few years ago when Bryant wrote: “One morning in March 2018, I woke up to a phone call from Britain. Banksy’s PR team wanted to alert me. On that day, he would be unveiling a new artwork somewhere in New York.”
The reporter later learned that the location of Banksy’s new artwork would be at the Houston Bowery Wall in lower Manhattan, an established outdoor mural space known for showcasing international street art by well-known artists.
“Our lower Manhattan office wasn’t far away. We got there quickly, and beat everyone to the punch,” Bryant wrote. However, the reporter said that he was surprised to see the mural that featured the image of Kurdish artist Zehra Dogan, who was imprisoned by Turkish authorities, as he expected Banksy to deliver his idea about President Donald Trump, amid his first term in the White House.
Before informing his colleagues at the BBC in London, Bryant said: “We noticed a security guard wearing a fluorescent yellow vest patrolling the sidewalk” near the site. After having a conversation with him, the security guard said the artist “told him that the crowds would be descending soon. And the media too.”
That’s when Bryant asked him what Banksy looked like. Without missing a beat, he pointed to a café down the road, where a middle-aged man in a black hat and shaggy gray coat was just leaving with hot coffee ready. “That’s the artist,” Bryant said. His young assistant walked cheerfully beside him.”
The reporter and his photographer ran after the artist and his assistant, but they quickly jumped into the car and “fell to the ground,” he wrote, adding: “We filmed him speeding down Houston Street.”
Bryant said he called his bosses in Washington and London to inform them of the “global exclusivity” they had just seized. “We caught Banksy red-handed. The man we photographed even had fresh paint on his fingers,” he wrote.
However, the reporter noted that he faced an “institutional and personal dilemma,” because he “did not want to be the journalist who exposed his identity. This would jeopardize his future work and weaken his political advantage.” But on the other hand, “journalists are not in the business of repression.”
While Bryant weighed both points of view, he said, “A phone call came from London.”
“A senior colleague told me that his daughter had accompanied him to work that day and thought it was wrong to expose Banksy,” he wrote. “We shouldn’t be a news organization telling kids there is no Santa Claus,” she added.
He continued: “The then BBC arts editor entered the fray, explaining that whenever he asked audiences if they wanted to know Banksy’s real identity, they all shouted no. In a culture obsessed with fame, anonymity clearly carries a higher currency. The then head of BBC News agreed.”
Ultimately, Bryant said the BBC “buried the footage” of the famous artist.
Hollywood Reporter I contacted the BBC for comment.
For years, people and the media have tried to unmask Banksy. Earlier this year, Reuters She claimed to have revealed the true identity of the artist, saying that the person behind the art is Robin Gunningham, who allegedly changed his name to David Jones several years ago.
