The outgoing boss of Britain’s BBC sought to rally his journalists yesterday, saying that although they had made mistakes they needed to fight for their work as the broadcaster confronts legal action by US President Donald Trump.
The British Broadcasting Corporation has been plunged into its biggest crisis in decades after its two most senior staff, Director General Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, quit following criticism over standards and accusations of bias at the corporation, including in connection with the way it edited a speech by Trump.
Trump’s lawyers have said the BBC must retract the documentary in which the edited speech was aired by Friday, or face a lawsuit for ‘no less’ than $1 billion.
Davie told staff that he was fiercely proud of the publicly funded organisation, while acknowledging that ‘we have made some mistakes that have cost us’.
“We are a unique and precious organisation, and I see the free Press under pressure, I see the weaponisation,” he said at an all-staff meeting, without elaborating.
Some political figures and sections of the British Press have directed allegations of bias at the BBC – including claims that it favours the governing Labour Party – and have used the criticism to challenge its licence fee funding model.
Supporters of the broadcaster, meanwhile, argue that such attacks are part of a broader campaign against public service media.
A snap YouGov poll conducted on Monday, a day after Davie’s resignation, showed one-third of the British public believes the BBC has a left-wing bias.
Analysts say the resignations have exposed deep frictions over governance and editorial standards at the broadcaster, raising questions about whether it can maintain public trust.
An internal memo by a former BBC adviser accused it of editorial failings on Trump, the Israel-Hamas war and transgender coverage.
But Davie, who became director general in 2020, tried to calm worries over the broadcaster’s future. “The BBC is going to be thriving, and I support everyone on the team,” he said ahead of the all-staff meeting.
Davie said he had decided to step down because of the job’s relentlessness, the need to give his successor time to prepare for the next review of the BBC’s funding model, and an editorial breach that required accountability, according to a transcript of his comments at the staff meeting.
The outgoing boss said he was proud of the team he had built, adding that ‘some responsibility had to be taken’ for mistakes made.
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