The BBC’s Director General, Tim Davie, and the Head of News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness, have both stepped down following criticism of an edited segment broadcast in a recent Panorama episode.
The programme included altered footage of former US President Donald Trump’s speech on January 6th 2021, delivered shortly before the riot at the US Capitol.
The revelation came from a report in The Telegraph.
An internal BBC memo, later leaked, warned that the edit risked implying Trump had directly encouraged the violence that followed. The same document also highlighted concerns about possible bias within BBC Arabic’s reporting of the Israel-Gaza conflict and other issues.
Davie had held the position of BBC Director General for five years.
“Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable,” he said as he announced his departure on Sunday night.
“While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.
“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”
Meanwhile, Turness, who served three years as Head of News, explained that the Panorama issue had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC”.
“I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me,” she said.
“But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.”
BBC chairman Samir Shah is due to write to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee later today, offering an apology over the matter.
Trump’s actual words were: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Panorama aired the following version: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol…and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The two sections which were conjoined together were actually over 50 minutes apart in the original speech and gave a false impression that Trump was encouraging violence.
Following reports of the internal memo, the White House called the matter an example of “100% fake news”.
Responding to the resignations, Trump himself said that senior BBC figures were leaving “because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th.”
He added: “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
The BBC has not yet issued a full public response to the substantive issues raised or an explanation for how or why this transpired.