One of the two BBC executives who resigned this week told company staff on Tuesday to “fight” for journalism, alluding to President Donald Trump’s $1 billion lawsuit threat without directly addressing it.
Trump threatened the company with legal action after the outlet deceptively edited his speech from the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“I see the free press under pressure. I see the weaponization. I think we have to fight for our journalism,” outgoing BBC Director-General Tim Davie said on a staff call. “We have made some mistakes that have cost us, but we need to fight for that.”
“These times are difficult for the BBC, but we will get through it,” he added. “We will get through it, and we will thrive. This narrative will not just be given by our enemies. It’s our narrative. We own things.”
Davie resigned on Sunday, along with BBC News CEO Deborah Turness, over allegations of bias stemming from the British public broadcaster’s deceptive editing of Trump’s speech.
In a documentary released in October 2024, a week before the presidential election, the outlet spliced Trump’s words together to make it seem he incited his supporters to engage in violence on the day of Congress’s certification of the 2020 election results. The spliced words were spoken more than 50 minutes apart. The BBC also omitted parts in which Trump called for peaceful protests on Capitol Hill.
The editing choice made headlines last week when The Telegraph reported on a 19-page memorandum showing the BBC “completely misled” viewers with the documentary.
Trump’s legal team put the BBC on legal notice, giving the corporation until Friday to retract any “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” about the president and issue an apology. Otherwise, the threatened $1 billion lawsuit is in order.
The BBC said on Monday it would review the notice and respond in due course.
Davie said he decided to leave the company because he felt compelled to take responsibility for the “editorial breach.” He also gave two other reasons: the demanding nature of the job and the opportunity for the next director-general to negotiate the BBC’s charter renewal in 2027.
BBC Chairman Samir Shah said the board was in “succession mode” to find Davie’s replacement. Shah has been apologetic throughout the fallout from the editing controversy.
Turness took responsibility for the editorial oversight but maintained that the BBC is not biased.
“I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me, but I’d like to make one thing very clear: BBC News is not institutionally biased,” she told reporters on Monday. “That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.”
Trump accused the BBC of election interference last year. Reform UK leader and Trump ally Nigel Farage argued the same, noting the president is “very, very unhappy.” The two spoke over the phone late last week.
Farage is doubtful that the BBC can survive unless it returns to covering “straight news” without bias.
Beyond its anti-Trump coverage, the BBC has faced similar criticism over its treatment of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists over the past two years. The Israeli Embassy in London accused the BBC of platforming “antisemitic and extremist narratives” and called for the broadcaster to return to impartial reporting.
“We hope that this moment will serve as a turning point. The BBC must seize this opportunity to restore public trust by ensuring fair, factual, and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East,” the Israeli Embassy posted on X in the wake of Davie and Turness’s resignations. “Accountability and transparency must replace denial and defensiveness.”