BBC Director General Tim Davie and BBC News head Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday after widespread criticism over how the public broadcaster edited a speech by US President Donald Trump.
The episode is the latest scandal to hit the BBC, which has also faced accusations of failing to maintain political neutrality in coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, and has recently been rocked by child abuse scandals and allegations of bullying and sexual assault involving high-profile presenters.
What we know about the resignations
Davie said in a statement that “the BBC is not perfect and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.” He acknowledged that debate around BBC News had “understandably contributed to my decision” and said he must “take ultimate responsibility,” adding the resignation was “entirely my decision.” He told staff he was coordinating with the board for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.
Turness told staff that questions over the Trump documentary had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC, an institution that I love. As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.” She said mistakes had been made but insisted that recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased were wrong.
Reuters cited a source saying the BBC board was stunned by Davie’s decision. Trump welcomed the resignations, calling out “corrupt journalists” and saying “these are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.”
What was wrong with the Trump documentary?
Pressure grew after the Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier by a BBC adviser on standards and guidelines. The dossier criticized the way Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech was edited for a BBC documentary, saying it was misleading because it removed a section where Trump told supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
The memo alleged the Panorama program had spliced two parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to encourage the Capitol Hill riots — showing him saying “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and “we will fight like hell” from different parts of the address. The leaked dossier described “serious and systemic problems” with the BBC’s impartiality and called the Panorama edit “completely misleading.”
Why the BBC chief had to resign
The BBC operates under tighter scrutiny than commercial rivals because it is publicly funded by a compulsory TV licence fee and bound by its royal charter to maintain impartiality across all output. Perceived deviations provoke intense backlash from politicians, viewers and competitors.
Complaints about the documentary prompted an investigation by the UK’s media regulator and led the White House to label the BBC “fake news.” Media watchers say those developments, combined with existing controversies, likely created untenable pressure on the two executives and pushed them to step down.
Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
