BBC boss ‘right’ to resign

POLITICIANS in Henley have mixed feelings following the resignation of Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC.

Davie, who lives just outside Henley, admitted “mistakes were made” after it was revealed that a speech by President Donald Trump that the BBC aired in October 2024 had been edited and was “misleading”.

His resignation was accompanied by that of Deborah Turness, the head of news.

A leaked memo by Michael Prescott, a former Sunday Times political editor, accused the organisation of editorial failings and systemic left-wing bias on issues including the Gaza-Israel conflict.

Henley MP Freddie van Mierlo, a Liberal Democrat, said members of the BBC board should consider their roles in the mistakes that have been made but reaffirmed his support for the corporation.

He said: “Clearly mistakes have been made. It’s important that leadership at any organisation is held to account. The BBC remains the single most trusted source of news worldwide and is a huge asset to the UK.”

Stefan Gawrysiak, who represents Henley Residents Group on the town and county councils, said the resignations were the right decision and the BBC should act quickly to correct mistakes.

He said: “Compared with other news organisations, be they newspapers or be they other broadcasters in the UK and especially in America, the BBC has an absolutely fantastic record of accuracy and verification.

“As far as the BBC is concerned their aim is to be accurate at all times and 98 per cent of all their programmes, they get it right and they put a completely reasonable and balanced point of view. There have been two or three mistakes recently, the reporting from Gaza, not actually saying that the lad that was doing the commentary was the son of a Hamas official and also the Panorama programme editing the speech that Trump made.

“Therefore, unfortunately, I think the resignations were probably right.”

Martin Dew, who chairs the Henley and Thame branch of Reform UK, said while he welcomed the resignations, he was “troubled” by what he believes is a “rot” at the organisation.

He believed reporting from the BBC was one-sided.

Mr Dew said: “It would be good to hear a more pro-Israel stance for example, or on net-zero, it would be good to hear more of the views of nay-sayers rather than people who fit the agenda.” The Trump speech was featured in a Panorama documentary and had spliced two separate clips ahead of the White House riots on January 6, 2021.

In the programme, the edit showed Trump telling supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell”. However, the second part of the edit had in fact been spoken 50 minutes later in the speech.

Davie addressed staff on Tuesday, urging colleagues to “fight for our journalism”, adding: “We have made some mistakes that have cost us, but we need to fight for that.”

Davie was named director-general in June 2020, succeeding Lord Hall, of Henley, in the role.

It is understood he will stay on as director-general until a replacement is found.