By Ayomide Otitoju
The BBC on Monday officially opened applications for a new Director General following the resignation of Tim Davie, who stepped down earlier this month after a misleading edit of former U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a diplomatic row.
The broadcaster had apologised for the inaccurate edit, which appeared to show Trump urging violent action ahead of the January 2021 Capitol attack. Trump has since threatened a $5 billion lawsuit, although the BBC has rejected his demands for compensation.
Davie and the corporation’s head of news resigned on November 9, shortly after Trump accused the BBC of employing “corrupt journalists”. The vacancy for the corporation’s highest office went live Monday, with applications due by December 31. The job description calls it “one of the most important, high-profile public posts in the UK.”
The controversy is one of several faced by the BBC this year, including criticism over anti-Israeli military chants aired during the Glastonbury Festival broadcast.
Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Monday, BBC Chair Samir Shah said news chief Deborah Turness was right to resign over the “error in her division”, but revealed he spent “a great deal of time” persuading Davie not to quit.
“The board wished that the director general had not resigned. He had our full confidence throughout,” Shah said, adding that the broadcaster should have responded more quickly once the error became public through a leaked internal memo.
Trump’s legal team argues the edit left a “false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory” impression of his remarks outside the White House. However, Michael Prescott, the author of the leaked memo, told MPs that Trump’s reputation had “probably not” been harmed.
The BBC is funded in the UK through a licence fee paid by households that watch live television.
