BBC Radio Scotland will be "looking at its vetting procedures" after a prank caller was allowed to say a deeply offensive and racist term live on air.
The caller, who may have been using a fake foreign accent, spoke to Kaye Adams on her morning show on January 11.
The show had been talking to a lady angry about Celtic’s training trip to Dubai. She had said that the nation was expected to “worship at the feet of football” and urged the Government to “shut the whole damn lot down”.
“Why are they so special?” the caller asked.
At this point Adams interrupts, saying that while a “burning question” had been raised, she had to pass to another caller, named “Agoras”.
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“Agoras” then says something unintelligible, which causes Adams to confirm he is there.
After she asks how the caller is, he responds: “I am good. I want to ask a question. Am I allowed to say n***** on the air?”
The offensive term causes Adams to ask for the caller to be cut off, and she then apologises, saying: “I am mortally embarrassed that that call got through and I can only apologise profusely.
“Can I say to that person, that level of racism, ignorance and bigotry is utterly intolerable. I am aghast. I am aghast. I apologise.
“I can’t believe it. Here we are talking about football, talking about football in the middle of a pandemic, and we have people who are so ignorant and infantile that they would pick up a phone like a 14-year-old making ignorant comments like that. I just cannot express my disgust clearly enough.”
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The other caller then says that the name “Agoras” is Greek, to which Adams says that she presumes it was a fake name and that they will be looking at their vetting procedures.
Agora means marketplace or open meeting place in Greek and is the root of the word agoraphobia, meaning fear of open spaces.
Agura, sometimes agora according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is also the name of the currency in Israel into which the New Israeli Shekel (NIS) is subdivided.
A BBC spokesperson said: “A caller who had indicated before coming live on air that they had a question about the topic under discussion was cut off immediately after using a highly offensive racist remark.
"Kaye apologised profusely and also stated that such a remark was utterly intolerable. We share Kaye’s view and also offer an fulsome apology for what occurred.”
A clip of the caller saying the offending term had not been removed from the BBC website at the time of writing.
You can listen below. The offensive term has been removed from the clip.
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