Following the resignations of BBC Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness, Turness defended the British broadcaster. “I resigned at the weekend because I took responsibility,” the former news director told reporters in front of the BBC building this morning. “But I want to make one thing clear: BBC News is not institutionally biased.”
Regarding US President Donald Trump’s accusations, he said: “Of course our journalists are not corrupt. Our journalists are hard workers who try to be impartial and I will support their journalism.”
The broadcaster accompanied the review with a live blog
As a result of the resignation, BBC There is a live blog on their site where the station’s senior journalists respond to the criticism of recent weeks. BBC chairman Samir Shah will deliver a statement to a parliamentary committee today apologizing.
Peter Fincham, former controller of BBC One, described Davie and Turness’ resignations as “a sad day for the BBC” in a telephone interview with 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell. It is “one of the BBC’s worst habits to believe that it is OK to play dead,” Fincham said. Even though these allegations have been around since May, the broadcaster has not responded to them seriously until now.
Former news director Roger Mosey told BBC Breakfast he was “very sad” by Davies’ resignation. However, he also said that it was in his broadcast panorama made an “unjustified journalistic contribution” and also criticized the fact that the BBC knew about it but reacted too slowly.
Davie and Turness resigned after criticism
On Sunday evening, Davie announced his resignation after criticism of him became clearer. Turness’ news director also resigned. The starting point for the criticism was a documentary shown shortly before the 2024 US presidential election Trump: Second chance? for broadcast panorama. Excerpts from Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech before the storming of the Capitol in Washington have been edited together. Critics complained that the editing gave the impression that Trump was directly asking his supporters to storm the US Congressional seat.
The BBC denied the allegations until Davies resigned. Several senior journalists even criticized reporting on the case as an attempt to discredit the BBC.
