Journalism of Courage
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) director general Tim Davie and head of news, Deborah Turness turned in their resignation on Sunday after criticism of the way in which the news outlet edited a speech by US President Donald Trump. The BBC, in a statement, said that both Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness have decided to leave the corporation, AP reported.
“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said. Adding in the letter, Davie said he has been “working through exact timings with the Board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.” Turness, on the other hand, said the controversy regarding the Trump documentary “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love.”
The controversy erupts from a documentary titled ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ which was broadcast on the BBC a week before the US presidential elections. A Telegraph report earlier claimed that it had seen a leaked internal BBC memo which suggested that a one hour panorama documentary had edited parts of Trump’s speech, wherein the US President reportedly appeared to encourage the riots of January 2021 at the Capitol Hill.
Trump, during his speech in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 had said, “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 documentary’s edited version, Trump was heard saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
(with inputs from AP)
