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.
In an email to staff, both Davie and Turness said that mistakes have been made. Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster has been criticised for editing a speech made by President Trump on January 6, 2021 before protesters attacked the US Capitol in Washington. Critics have said that BBC edited Trump’s speech in a way that a section where the US President urges protesters to demonstrate peacefully was cut out.
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)
