The BBC is in the midst of a crisis after its director general and head of news resigned, and US President Donald Trump threatened it with a $1bn lawsuit.
The corporation has been under fire after criticism that a Panorama documentary misled viewers when it edited a speech by Trump, making it look like he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capitol.
On Monday, BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised for that “error of judgement”. Trump has demanded a retraction, an apology and compensation, and has given the BBC a deadline of Friday to respond.
Concerns over the Trump documentary emerged when a leaked internal memo was published by the Telegraph newspaper. The memo also criticised the BBC’s reporting of trans issues, and BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
What was in the Trump documentary?
The Panorama documentary, called Trump: A Second Chance?, was broadcast on 28 October 2024, just days before the US presidential election.
Last week, the Telegraph published a report, saying it had seen a leaked BBC memo from Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to its editorial standards committee. He left the role in June, saying said he sent it in “despair at inaction by the BBC Executive”.
The memo suggested that the one-hour Panorama programme had edited parts of Trump’s speech together, so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021.
In his speech in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, Trump 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 edit he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.
The “fight like hell” comment was taken from a section where Trump discussed how “corrupt” US elections were. In total, he used the words “fight” or “fighting” 20 times.
The document said Panorama’s “distortion of the day’s events” would leave viewers asking: “Why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?”
When the issue was raised with managers, the memo continued, they “refused to accept there had been a breach of standards”.
The BBC has received more than 500 complaints since the Telegraph’s story was published, said Samir Shah in a letter to Dame Caroline Dineage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sports Committee, on 10 November.
“It has also prompted further reflection from the BBC,” he said.
“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
What has Trump said?
After director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday, President Trump said top people in the BBC were quitting or being fired “because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th”.
“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election,” he wrote. “What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
His lawyers have sent a letter to the BBC threatening legal action.
It sets out three demands:
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Immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published
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Immediately issue an apology for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump
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Appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused
The BBC has been given a deadline to respond of Friday, 14 November, at 22:00 GMT. The letter adds that if the BBC does not comply, the president will “enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than $1bn in damages”.
The BBC has said it will respond in due course.
What are Trump’s legal options?
The president’s lawyer has said Trump plans to sue the BBC for defamation in his home state of Florida.
There is normally more “respect for freedom of expression in the US” courts, legal expert Joshua Rozenberg told BBC Radio 4. Someone in Trump’s position would normally have to show “that the person you’re accusing acted with malice”, he said.
The president would also have to show that he has suffered some major loss from the programme.
“So there are definitely restrictions on being able to sue, and arguments that can be put [by the BBC],” Rozenberg said. “But I think it’s worth looking at what happens in the real world.”
When faced with legal threats from Trump, some US news organisations have chosen to settle – paying out millions before a case reaches court.
Paramount Global paid him $16m to settle a dispute over an interview broadcast on CBS with former vice-president Kamala Harris. And ABC News paid him $15m to settle a defamation lawsuit after its anchor falsely claimed he had been found “liable for rape”.
Chris Ruddy, founder and chief executive of conservative US media outlet Newsmax Media, and an ally of Trump, said he is very familiar with Florida’s libel laws and is “very assured” that the BBC would win if it does reach court.
“They would prevail because the state of Florida has pretty strong libel laws that defend media companies and free speech,” he said. “What’s happening is that a lot of media companies would prefer not to go through the media spectacle of all this.”
Trump would also have to show that the relevant part of the Panorama programme was available in Florida.
The president’s lawyer has said the “fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide”.
The story has been widely reported, and the relevant clip of Panorama has been available online in recent days, but it’s not clear whether the episode itself was ever broadcast or streamed in the US by the BBC.
What else was in the leaked internal memo?
Mr Prescott raised concerns about several other elements of the BBC’s news output.
He claimed its reporting of trans issues was effectively “censored” by its specialist LGBT reporters, who promoted a pro-trans agenda.
“I was told that time and time again the LGBTQ desk staffers would decline to cover any story raising difficult questions about the trans-debate,” the memo said.
And he pointed to problems with BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, including a claim that the service’s “story treatment was designed to minimise Israeli suffering and paint Israel as the aggressor”.
Other “troubling matters” were raised:
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Prescott says the BBC’s coverage of the 2024 US election was more critical of Trump than of his opponent, Kamala Harris
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He said the BBC published “ill-researched material that suggested issues of racism when there were none”, including in a now-removed BBC Verify story about car insurance
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There was a “selection bias” against sending stories about migration and asylum seekers to BBC News app users as push notifications
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His other criticisms include misrepresenting the percentage of Palestinian women and children who have been killed by Israel’s military in Gaza, and misrepresenting the likelihood of children starving under Israel’s aid blockade
Shah said action has been taken to address “underlying problems” at BBC Arabic.
He also said it was “simply not true” the memo had uncovered issues the BBC had “sought to bury” – nor was it correct to suggest the BBC had done nothing to tackle concerns raised.
Who resigned from the BBC?
Tim Davie has been BBC director general since 2020. Earning between £540,000 and £544,999 a year, he oversees the corporation’s services and is responsible for its editorial, operational and creative leadership.
He did not directly mention Panorama in his resignation statement on Sunday, although he said: “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.
“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made, and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”
Deborah Turness has responsibility for about 6,000 people [Getty Images]
Deborah Turness had been the CEO of BBC News, overseeing news and current affairs programmes.
Earning between £430,000 and £434,999, she has responsibility for a team of about 6,000 people, broadcasting to audiences of almost half a billion across the world, in more than 40 languages.
In her statement, Turness said: “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love.
“As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me – and I took the decision to offer my resignation to the director general last night.”
She added: “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
What other controversies has Davie faced?
Tim Davie has weathered many scandals and crises during his five years leading the BBC.
These include:
Davie’s resignation comes at a sensitive time for the BBC, with the government set to review the corporation’s Royal Charter – which essentially gives it the right to exist – before the current term expires in 2027.
What reaction has there been to the resignations?
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the prime minister does not believe the BBC is “institutionally biased”. Number 10 also denied the BBC was “corrupt” – a word Trump used to describe some of its journalists.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chair of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, said Davie had been “slow to react” to the issues raised in Michael Prescott’s memo, following a series of editorial crises over the summer.
“The BBC just seem to have dropped the ball at every opportunity,” she said. “And that’s not a board-level problem, that’s an institutional problem.”
Dame Caroline rejected an argument made by ex-Sun editor David Yelland that there had been a “coup” by the BBC board. She said Davie did not stand down because the board asked him to, but because of an “editorial failure”.
Mark Damazer, former controller of BBC Radio 4, said he welcomes debate about the BBC’s impartiality, but that it is “absolutely wrong” to say that the corporation is “systemically biased”.
He disagreed with ex-Telegraph editor Sir Charles Moore, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the BBC was “always [reporting] from a sort of metropolitan left position. Absolutely consistently, that’s how the bias is”.
How will the BBC choose Davie’s replacement?
The director general is appointed by the BBC Board, which is responsible for ensuring it delivers the corporation’s mission and public purposes.
The BBC Board is led by chair Samir Shah and he is one of 10 non-executive members, plus four executive members, including the director general.
Davie’s successor will be the 18th director general in the BBC’s 103-year history.
Names who have been rumoured as potential contenders include Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s recently-departed chief content officer who was in charge of all programming except news.
Other names include Jay Hunt, one of the most experienced executives in British TV, and James Harding, the BBC’s head of news from 2013 to 2018.
