LONDON, England — The Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Tim Davie, and the corporation’s Head of News, Deborah Turness, have resigned following a mounting controversy over the editing of a documentary involving U.S. President Donald Trump.
Their resignations come days after The Telegraph published a report revealing that the BBC’s Panorama documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?”, had been edited in a way that misleadingly linked Trump’s comments to the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot.
According to a leaked internal memo written by Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Standards Committee, the programme spliced together two separate remarks from Trump’s speech in Washington, D.C., creating a false impression that he had incited violence.
The unedited version of Trump’s address included the line: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
However, the version aired by the BBC combined that sentence with another from a different part of the speech — “We fight. We fight like hell.” — originally referring to what Trump called “corrupt” election practices.
The whistleblower memo said the documentary’s “distortion of the day’s events” could seriously damage public trust, warning: “Viewers will ask, why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?”
In a statement confirming his resignation, Davie said he accepted full accountability for what he described as an unacceptable breach of editorial integrity.
“There have been some mistakes made, and as Director General, I have to take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said.
Turness, who joined the BBC in 2022 after previously serving as president of NBC News International, also announced her departure, saying that while “mistakes were made,” the broader accusations of systemic bias were unfounded.
“Recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong,” she said.
“But this incident shows we must always hold ourselves to the highest editorial standards.”
The controversy has intensified scrutiny of the BBC, which has faced criticism in recent months over its coverage of sensitive political and social issues, including the Israel–Gaza war and transgender rights.
The leaked memo also revealed that Prescott had previously raised concerns about “editorial slippage” in the BBC’s reporting on gender debates, suggesting that internal pressure had led to inconsistent application of the corporation’s impartiality rules.
The corporation’s board convened an emergency session late Sunday, after which both Davie and Turness submitted their resignations. The BBC has yet to announce interim replacements.
Reacting to the controversy, President Trump condemned the BBC’s conduct, describing the edited documentary as “a terrible thing for democracy.”
“They tried to make it look like I encouraged violence when I did not. It’s disgraceful,” he said in a Truth Social post on Monday, November 10, 2025.
The fallout marks one of the gravest editorial crises for the BBC in recent years, recalling previous scandals over journalistic ethics and political bias.
In a brief statement, the BBC Board said it would commission an independent review of the incident and reaffirmed its commitment to editorial fairness.
“The BBC deeply regrets the error and will take steps to ensure that our audiences can continue to rely on us for accuracy and impartiality,” the board said.
The resignations of Davie and Turness cap a turbulent period for the world’s most recognisable public broadcaster — one that now faces a battle to rebuild public trust amid political pressure at home and abroad.
