BBC Director General Tim Davie and Director of News Services Deborah Turness have resigned following a week of controversy surrounding the British public broadcaster over the manipulation of footage from Donald Trump's January 2021 speech to create the impression that the then-president, fresh from his election defeat, had directly incited his supporters to storm the Capitol.
"Like all public organizations, the BBC is not perfect," Davie said in the statement announcing his stepping down. "Overall, the BBC is doing well, but mistakes have been made, and as director general, I must take final responsibility for them."
Meanwhile, the countdown has begun on Donald Trump's ultimatum to the British broadcaster : an ultimatum entrusted to a Florida law firm, through a letter leaked in full yesterday, in which the American president's lawyers demand a full public retraction by Friday, and concrete reparations from the broadcaster, under penalty of a legal suit demanding monstrous compensation of "no less than one billion dollars", which should be filed before the US courts.
A scenario that Keir Starmer's Labour government is trying everything to avoid, oscillating between urging the public service to assume its responsibilities—in order to try to appease the ire of its overseas ally, without spoiling the good relations forged between Sir Keir and The Donald—and officially defending state television, seen as a national "institution."
“We must fight to defend our journalism,” the outgoing director general of the BBC blurted out as he said goodbye .
(Unioneonline)
