The Director-General of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the broadcaster’s head of news, Deborah Turness, have resigned following widespread criticism of the corporation’s handling of a speech by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The BBC confirmed on Sunday that both executives had decided to step down after backlash over how the broadcaster edited Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech, delivered before protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol, for a documentary aired last year.
Critics said the edit omitted a key section in which Trump urged his supporters to demonstrate peacefully, making the portrayal misleading.
In a letter to staff, Davie said his decision to leave after five years was “entirely my own,” acknowledging that “some mistakes have been made” and that, as Director-General, he must take “ultimate responsibility.” He added that he would work with the BBC Board to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership.
Turness, in her resignation note, said the controversy had reached a point where it was “causing damage to the BBC, an institution that I love.”
She said she was stepping down “in the spirit of accountability,” while stressing that recent claims of “institutional bias” at BBC News were unfounded.
The resignations come after the Daily Telegraph published excerpts from an internal report compiled by media consultant Michael Prescott, which criticized the BBC’s editorial judgment in several areas, including coverage of transgender issues and alleged anti-Israel bias in its Arabic service.
Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster has long faced scrutiny over impartiality, particularly given its unique status as a national institution financed by an annual television license fee of £174.50 (about $230) per household.
The BBC has also been accused of bias in its reporting of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. In February, it withdrew a Gaza documentary from its streaming service after it was revealed that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas government official.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said the corporation suffered from “institutional bias” and urged new leadership to deliver “genuine reform from top to bottom.”
Meanwhile, Lisa Nandy, Britain’s media minister in the Labour government, praised Davie for his service and pledged government support to help the BBC maintain “its role at the heart of national life.”
“Now more than ever,” Nandy said, “the need for trusted news and high-quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life, and our place in the world.”
(Agency Report)
