ALBAWABA - The BBC said on Sunday that Tim Davie, the Director-General, and Deborah Turness, the Head of News, have both stepped down. This came after a lot of criticism of how the network edited a speech by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Their leaving comes after more people looked into how the BBC showed part of Trump's speech from January 6, 2021, in a documentary that aired before the US presidential election last year. The edited part seemed to say that Trump told his supporters to march with him to the Capitol and "fight fiercely" before the attack on the building.
The unedited video from that day, on the other hand, shows Trump telling his audience to walk with him and "cheer on" lawmakers instead of calling for violence.
The edited video was shown in the BBC documentary "Trump: A Second Chance?" which aired two weeks before the 2024 election. As soon as the differences between the original and edited material were made public, there was a lot of backlash against the program.
The argument quickly got worse, with British officials calling the event "serious" and worrying about the BBC's editorial integrity. Under increasing pressure, the broadcaster confirmed that both Davie and Turness had resigned.
The event has brought back up the question of whether the media is fair and what public broadcasters should do during politically charged times.
