Top BBC executives resign over escalating scandal on impartiality, bias

LONDON: Two top executives at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) resigned on Sunday amid an escalating scandal over impartiality and bias, as reported by CNN.

Director-General Tim Davie and the chief executive of the news division, Deborah Turness, both quit, CNN said after the leak of a memo which revealed that the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump to make it appear that he had directly called for violence on January 6, 2021.

According to CNN, which cited BBC, Davie announced he was resigning as director general of the British broadcaster in a note sent to staff on Sunday afternoon and said that his resignation was “entirely my decision.”

“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as Director-General I have to take ultimate responsibility,” he said as cited by CNN.

Turness, who was also stepping down, said, “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,” in a statement on the BBC website, as noted by CNN.

“The buck stops with me,” she said, and offered her resignation to Tim Davie on Saturday.

“While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong,” she added.

CNN reported that the resignations come after an internal whistleblowing memo seen by British newspaper, The Telegraph, revealed the BBC had broadcast a “doctored” Trump speech, making it seem that he encouraged Capitol Hill rioters, telling them he was going to walk with them to “fight like hell.”

In fact, Trump said in his speech in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 that “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”, CNN said.

Citing the leaked internal memo, CNN said that the documentary made the US president appear to say things he never actually said by splicing footage together. (ANI)