15m ago
10.02 GMT
Here are some more comments from the outgoing BBC
News head Deborah Turness, who answered questions on her way into BBC
broadcasting house in central London this morning.
Journalist: Do you think that the journalists are
corrupt like President Trump says?
Turness: Of course our journalists aren’t
corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality.
And I will stand by their journalism.
Journalist: Is there institutional bias at the
BBC?
Turness: There is no institutional bias. Mistakes
are made, but there’s no institutional bias.
Journalist: But why weren’t the mistakes dealt
with on Trump, on antisemitism, on women’s rights?
Turness: I’m sure that story will emerge. But for
now, I’m going to go in and see our teams.
Deborah Turness speaks to the media outside
Broadcasting House.
Updated at
10.04 GMT
26m ago
09.51 GMT
BBC director general was slow to act, culture
committee chair says
We have heard from Culture, Media and Sport
committee chair Caroline Dinenage, who has suggested that the outgoing BBC
director Tim Davie ignored an internal dossier into bias at the BBC (see post
at 09.06 for more detail on the dossier).
She said Davie “ignored” concerns raised in
Michael Prescott’s report over the way the speech by Donald Trump was edited
for Panorama.
Dinenage said she is expecting a letter for BBC
Chair Samir Shah later today, but confirmed that it has not yet arrived.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today:
I’m very sad about Tim Davie stepping down. I
think he was an effective leader at the BBC.
I think he was a great champion for public
service media, but there is no escaping the fact that he was very slow to act
on this particular issue. But this isn’t the first time and on this particular
issue, Michael Prescott’s report, he just didn’t take it seriously until it was
too late.
He should have reacted with concern and examined
the claims, but just ignored it.
But you know, I do feel it was entirely avoidable
and it’s really regretful given the huge commitment to the BBC and public
service that Tim Davie demonstrated.
Dinenage added that she thinks it seems “a little
bit odd” that her committee has not yet heard from Shah, who is expected to
apologise for the way a speech by Donald Trump to crowds at the Capitol on
January 6 2021 was edited for current affairs programme Panorama.
49m ago
09.27 GMT
BBC News is not institutionally biased, Deborah
Turness says
Deborah Turness, the CEO of news, who resigned
along with the director general, Tim Davie, on Sunday evening, said the
following as she arrived at the BBC this morning in London:
I would like to say it has been the privilege of
my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team
of journalists.
I stepped down over the weekend because the buck
stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not
institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.
She was quoted as having said that “our
journalists aren’t corrupt and I will stand by their journalism”.
Turness made her name as editor of ITV News,
before moving to New York in 2013 to run the sprawling NBC News operation.
In 2021, Turness returned to ITN – who make news
programmes for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 – as chief executive.
She has been the CEO of BBC News since 2022,
overseeing BBC News and Current Affairs programming and having responsibility
for a team of about 6,000 people.
1h ago
09.06 GMT
What sort
of bias has the BBC been accused of?
The
Telegraph’s leaked BBC memo suggested a range of issues at the BBC, not just
the way Donald Trump’s Capitol speech had been selectively edited for the
Panorama programme.
The
leaked memo came from Michael Prescott, a former independent standards adviser
to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee.
Prescott
left his role earlier this year and has not commented on the document,
understood to have been leaked by a whistleblower.
The
Telegraph said Prescott alleged there were “systemic problems”, which had not
been addressed by senior management, claiming there were “stark differences”
between the coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza on BBC Arabic and on the main BBC
website. One issue Prescott reportedly highlighted is the repeated use of
commentators who were antisemitic or pro-Hamas.
As my
colleague notes in this story, the 19-page dossier is also reported to have
criticised the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, saying the broadcaster had
been “captured by a small group of [staff] promoting the Stonewall view” of
gender identity issues and that its LGBT desk would “decline to cover any
stories raising difficult questions”.
It is
said to have alleged that stories raising complex questions about trans issues
were suppressed, with a “constant drip-feed of one-sided stories celebrating
the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity”.
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