BBC Director General Tim Davey and BBC News Director Deborah Ternes are resigning amid the scandal surrounding the editing of Donald Trump's speech on Panorama.
"The BBC is not perfect and we must always be open, transparent and accountable. While this is not the only reason, the ongoing debate around BBC News has naturally influenced my decision. Overall, the BBC is doing a good job, but some mistakes have been made and as Director General I must take ultimate responsibility," Davey said in a letter.
"The ongoing controversy over Panorama about President Trump has reached a point where it is damaging to the BBC, an institution that I love dearly," Deborah Ternes said. "While mistakes have been made, I want to make it clear that recent allegations of bias against BBC News as an organisation are false", Ternes said he took responsibility.
Donald Trump commented on the resignation of the BBC Director General on his Truth Social network, writing: "Everyone is resigning or being fired because they were caught 'distorting' my very good (ideal) speech on January 6th."
These are extremely dishonest people who tried to interfere in the course of the presidential election. Moreover, they are from a country that many consider to be our number one ally. What a horror for democracy," Trump wrote.
The resignations of Davy and Ternes followed an article in the Telegraph newspaper, which stated that the BBC Panorama documentary "Trump: A Second Chance" misled viewers by editing the US president's speech on the day his supporters rioted on Capitol Hill.
The Telegraph reported that it had seen an internal memo indicating that the program had edited two different parts of Trump's speech, creating the impression that he was encouraging the January 2021 riots.
