BBC Director General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness have resigned following revelations that a Panorama documentary misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump, sparking outrage and accusations of institutional bias at the broadcaster.
The controversy erupted after The Telegraph published details of a leaked internal BBC memo indicating that Panorama’s programme, "Trump: A Second Chance?" combined two separate parts of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech in Washington, DC, making it appear as though he explicitly encouraged the storming of the US Capitol.
The leaked memo, written by Michael Prescott—a former independent adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee who left in June—criticised the programme’s editorial decisions, saying they failed to meet the BBC’s impartiality standards.
The documentary, produced by independent company October Films Ltd, had aired last year.
In Trump’s original speech, he told supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” However, in the Panorama version, he was shown saying: “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 lines were delivered more than 50 minutes apart.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Davie said: “Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”
Turness, who had been CEO of BBC News since 2022, said the decision to resign was “difficult” but necessary to protect the institution’s credibility. “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC—an institution that I love,” she said. “The buck stops with me.”
She added: “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear—recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
BBC Chairwoman Dame Elan Closs Stephens said the board “respects the decision” of both leaders to step down and will move swiftly to ensure continuity. “The BBC will very much be hoping that these resignations take the pressure out of this situation,” a culture correspondent noted.
Davie’s departure ends his five-year tenure as director general, during which he oversaw major organisational restructuring and weathered several editorial controversies, including over the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage and the Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone documentary, in which the narrator’s familial ties to Hamas were not initially disclosed.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy welcomed Davie’s resignation, calling it “a responsible decision” and commending his leadership during a period of “significant change.”
Turness, who previously served as CEO of ITN and president of NBC News International, had led BBC News and Current Affairs operations with a global reach of nearly half a billion viewers in more than 40 languages.
Davie, who joined the BBC in 2005 and became its 17th director general in 2020, was previously CEO of BBC Studios and oversaw the merger of BBC Worldwide with the corporation’s production arm. In 2018, he was appointed CBE for services to international trade.
There is no confirmation yet on when a new director general will be appointed.