He BBC director general Tim Davie and the head of information for the British public broadcaster announced their resignation this Sunday after a wave of criticism for the editing of a speech by US President Donald Trump.
“It is a sad day for the BBC. Tim has been an excellent director general for the last five years,” but he faced “constant pressure (…) which has led him to make the decision” to resign, the company’s president, Samir Shah, reported in a statement.
The British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy Hours earlier, he described as “extremely serious” the accusation against the BBC for presenting Trump’s statements in a misleading manner in a documentary.
The case, revealed by the conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, is based on a documentary by the BBC’s famous Panorama news program, broadcast a week before the US presidential elections on November 5, 2024.
BBC is accused of having staged separate fragments of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech in such a way that he appears to tell his supporters that he is going to walk with them to the Capitol to “fight like hell.”
In his full sentence, the president, then defeated at the polls by Joe Biden, says: “We are going to march to the Capitol and we are going to cheer on our brave senators and representatives in Congress.”
The expression “fight like demons” corresponds to another moment in the speech.
In a message to his staff announcing his decision, Davie acknowledged that “the current debate around BBC reporting” had contributed to his decision.
“While the BBC generally runs well, mistakes have been made and ultimately the director general must take responsibility,” he said.
