BBC director resigns after criticism of broadcaster’s editing of Trump’s January 6 speech

LONDON (AP) — The head of the BBC and the BBC’s chief news officer resigned Sunday after criticism of the way the organization edited a speech by US President Donald Trump.

The BBC said that Director General Tim Davie and Executive Director of News Deborah Turness had decided to leave the organisation.

The British Public Broadcasting Corporation was criticized for editing a speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol building in Washington.

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Critics said the way the speech was edited for a BBC documentary last year was misleading and cut out a section in which Trump said he wanted his supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

In a letter to staff, Davey said leaving the job after five years was “entirely my decision”.

“Overall, the BBC is working well, but some mistakes have been made, and as director-general I must take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said.

He said that he is “working through specific timings with the Board of Directors to allow for an orderly transition to a successor during the coming months.”

Torness said the controversy surrounding Trump’s documentary “has reached a point where it has caused damage to the BBC – the institution I love. As chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, the responsibility falls on me.”

“In public life, leaders need full accountability, which is why I will step down,” she said in a memo to staff. “While mistakes happen, I want to be absolutely clear that recent claims that BBC News is institutionally biased are false.”

Pressure has mounted on senior BBC executives since the Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier committed by Michael Prescott, who was appointed to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.

In addition to Trump’s amendment, the report criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

The BBC faces greater scrutiny than other broadcasters – and criticism from its commercial rivals – because of its status as a national corporation, which is funded by an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all households with a television set.

It is also obligated under the terms of its charter to be neutral in its outputs, and critics are quick to point it out when they believe it has failed.