Following her resignation as CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness has responded to US President Donald Trump’s claims and vowed that the British public broadcaster “is not institutionally biased”.
Turness and director general Tim Davie resigned from their positions on Sunday evening after the BBC discovered they had edited a speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021, before the attack on the Capitol in Washington, for a Panorama documentary. Critics said the edit was misleading and removed parts of Trump’s remarks in which he asked his supporters to protest peacefully.
The Republican president, a critic of the mainstream media, quickly weighed in on the controversy via Truth Social: “The TOP people at the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all resigned/fired, because they were caught ‘faking’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech on January 6th,” he wrote, calling the journalists involved “corrupt.”
“These are very dishonest people who tried to get on the scales of a presidential election,” Trump also said. “On top of everything else, they come from a foreign country, which many consider our number one ally. What a terrible thing for democracy!”
Outside BBC headquarters in London on Monday, Turness told reporters: “Our journalists are not corrupt and I will support their journalism. »
“I would like to say that it has been the privilege of my career to serve as CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists,” she continued. “I resigned over the weekend because I was to blame. But I want 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 apologized on Monday after Davie – who has weathered BBC storms countless times before – said he “ultimately took responsibility”. Shah said the news led to more than 500 complaints about the speech. “These issues are now being dealt with in the usual way. This has also prompted the BBC to think further. The conclusion of this deliberation is that we accept that the manner in which the speech was edited does indeed give the impression of a direct call to violent action. The BBC wishes to apologize for this error of judgement.”
The president explained what the BBC Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board heard from BBC News about how the clip was edited, saying it “aimed to convey the message of President Trump’s speech so that PanoramaThe audience was able to better understand how President Trump’s supporters greeted him and what was happening on the ground at the time.”
But because the issue was handled as part of a broader review of the BBC’s US election coverage and not as a specific complaint about a programme, “this point was not explored further at the time”, Shah added. “The points raised during the review were forwarded to the Panorama team, including decision-making on this change. In hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal measures,” he concluded.
“I will personally ensure that the BBC continues to take the necessary steps in the future to ensure that it retains the trust of the public we serve,” Shah also said, outlining a series of steps the organization will now take, including amendments to relevant online articles about the speech.
When asked by the BBC if the president was taking the company to court, Shah replied: “I don’t know yet. »
