Tim Davie and Deborah Turness are leaving their positions amid discussions related to the altered speech of President Trump, which was featured in the BBC program Panorama.
In his letter, Davie emphasized: “Although the BBC is functioning well overall, mistakes have been made, and as the Director General, I feel responsible for this. The discussions surrounding the Panorama program about Trump have reached a point where they are damaging our corporation.” According to him, he is currently coordinating the details of his departure with the board of directors to ensure a smooth transition of power to a new leader in the coming months.
Deborah Turness, commenting on the situation, noted: “The controversy surrounding the Panorama program about Trump has led to consequences that negatively affect the reputation of the BBC, which I sincerely respect. Mistakes were made, but accusations of bias against BBC News are false accusations.” She added that she submitted her resignation on the same day.
Tim Davie took over as Director General of the BBC in September 2020, having previously led the commercial division of BBC Studios for seven years. In total, Davie has worked at the BBC for 20 years.
Deborah Turness began her role as Editor-in-Chief of BBC News in 2022, overseeing a team of more than 5,000 people creating content in over 40 languages for 500 million viewers worldwide.
The Chairman of the BBC, Samir Shah, commented on the resignations: “This is a sad moment for our corporation. Tim has been an outstanding Director General who has taken the BBC to new heights.” He emphasized that Davie always had the full support of the board of directors, but the pressure on him was significant, which led to this decision.
Trump's Reaction
On his platform TruthSocial, Trump reacted to Davie's resignation, stating: “Everyone is resigning or being fired because they were caught distorting my very good speech from January 6.” He added that these actions are an attempt to interfere in the presidential election and called it a horror for democracy.
The resignations of Davie and Turness followed a publication in the Telegraph, which claimed that the BBC Panorama documentary “Trump: Second Chance?” misled viewers by shifting the focus in the president's speech delivered during the Capitol riots.
According to the Telegraph, the program used two different parts of Trump's speech, creating the impression that he was encouraging the riots, which caused dissatisfaction among viewers and critics. A note that became known was written by Michael Prescott, a former independent advisor to the corporation on editorial standards.
On Sunday, before the resignation announcement, the UK Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, stated that the situation with Panorama required attention, while making more serious allegations of systemic bias at the BBC.
She added that she is “fully confident” that the BBC leadership takes these allegations seriously.
Earlier, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee sent a letter to the BBC requesting information on the current situation, with a response scheduled for Monday.
Drama Unfolds
Nour Nandji, BBC Culture Correspondent
The BBC hopes that these resignations will help ease the tension in the situation.
Tension has been building since the Telegraph first reported on the changes in the Panorama documentary.
The situation seemed hopeless.
Interestingly, earlier Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy expressed her full support for the Director General and Chairman of the BBC.
She noted that she is confident in their ability to handle the current challenges.
Given the events of the last few hours, this has indeed become an unexpected turn of events.
