Madrid, November 9 (Europe Press) –
British network BBC’s general director Tim Davie and news chief executive Deborah Turnes have announced their resignation amid controversy over the broadcast of a fragmented speech by US President Donald Trump. President Donald Trump appeared to openly encourage his supporters to storm the Capitol during the January 2021 attack on North American Congressional Headquarters.
In a farewell letter published by the same British media outlet, Davie wrote: “While the BBC is functioning well, we have made some mistakes. As director-general, I must take ultimate responsibility.”
Mr Davey took up the role in September 2020 after previously serving as chief executive of BBC Studios, leaving the network after 20 years.
Manipulated mounting and pro-Palestinian bias
Newspaper The Telegraph took responsibility for exposing the controversy by publishing details of a leaked internal BBC memo suggesting that the program had edited two parts of President Trump’s speech with manipulated messages. The document was signed by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the bureau’s Editorial Standards Board who resigned from his position in June.
President Trump’s original phrase, “We’re going to march to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators and representatives,” was changed by the editing room of the documentary “Panorama,” to “We’re going to walk to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight like the devil,” which aired last year. The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.
The memo also said the BBC’s Arabic-language broadcaster displayed pro-Palestinian bias during its coverage of the Gaza war and had deliberately “censored” reactionary conservative voices in the gender identity debate, “treating trans experiences as a celebration of diversity without balance or objectivity, while ignoring the complexity of the issue”.
In his resignation letter, Turness wanted to use the opportunity to forcefully reject these latest charges. “While mistakes were made, I want to be absolutely clear that recent accusations of systemic bias at BBC News are false,” he said, blaming the incident solely on President Trump’s editing of his remarks.
“The controversy surrounding the Panorama program about President Trump continues and has reached a stage where it is damaging the BBC, which I love. I am responsible for that,” he concluded.
In the UK Government’s first institutional response, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy thanked Davie for his many years of service. “He led the BBC through a period of significant change and helped the organization meet the challenges it has faced in recent years,” Nandy wrote in a statement on his X account.
“Now more than ever, the need for reliable news and quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life and our place in the world,” he added.
BBC chairman Sameer Shah said he regretted Mr Davie’s resignation on a “sad day for the BBC”. In comments to the network he oversees, Shah said he understands that “Davie has always been under pressure, both personally and professionally, which led to today’s decision.”
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