BBC resignations: Director-general Tim Davie and CEO of BBC News issue statements after resigning

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In case you missed our updates, here's everything you need to know in one post:

• BBC director-general Tim Davie has resigned, admitting there had been "some mistakes" but that the resignation was "entirely his decision";
• BBC News CEO Deborah Turness also resigned;
• This came after concerns about the BBC's impartiality were raised this week over how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama;
• The US president himself has weighed in and welcomed the resignations;
• On the UK government's side, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has thanked Davie for his leadership
• On the political right, many including Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have called for the BBC to reform following the resignations as they saw "failures" and a lack of impartiality in the recent past.

If you'd like to read more on this story, catch up on these pieces on our website:

• Katie Spencer, arts and entertainment correspondent - 'Teflon Tim' rode out several BBC controversies – but now he's come unstuck
• In full - Tim Davie and Deborah Turness's resignation letters and the BBC response
• Explainer - The BBC controversies faced by Tim Davie during his time in charge

Watch: BBC's Tim Davie & News CEO resign

The director-general takes a crucial role at the BBC, serving effectively as both the corporation's CEO and its editor-in-chief across television, radio and online.

How does the appointment process work?

Since 2017, the BBC Board, the governing body overseeing the corporation's management, determines the recruitment process for the director-general. 

It consists of four executive and 10 non-executive members, including the government-appointed chair - currently Samir Shah.

When Davie was appointed in 2020, the board followed "a competitive process led by the Nominations Committee", a subset of the board, that had identified suitable candidates.

Among those shortlisted were Charlotte Moore, the BBC's director of content, Will Lewis, the former chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and Doug Gurr, the head of Amazon's UK and Ireland operations.

Who will replace Davie?

That seems to be up in the air at the moment.

"It's going to be a process that takes a number of months," our arts and entertainment correspondent Katie Spencer, Paste BN said.  

But she says the BBC is under an incredible amount of pressure to find someone "very quickly" to fill Davie's shoes.

"We're hurtling towards the 2027 BBC charter renewal time... and we live in a very precarious time for the BBC at the moment. 

"The TV landscape as we know it has fundamentally changed and having trust in news at the moment is so important."

Nigel Farage has suggested that someone from the private sector, who has "run a forward-facing business and understands PR", could be appointed as director-general.

Paste BN political correspondent Amanda Akass said: "I think this idea that the government will be appointing someone from the private sector to... change the entire culture of the BBC seems to be quite a far stretch."

Tim Davie stepping down as director-general of the BBC notably comes after several controversies faced by the broadcaster in recent years.

As mentioned, concerns about the BBC's impartiality were raised this week over how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama.

"While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision," Davie wrote in the resignation note sent to staff.

You can read the statement in full in our post at 6.35pm.

We have summarised the most notable controversies that the corporation faced with Davie at the helm in the article below:

By Katie Spencer, Paste BN arts and entertainment correspondent

Under his tenure, Tim Davie has had to deal with a lot. While both he and his head of News Deborah Turness have resigned over events of the last week, it's important to also take into account just how shaky the last couple of years have been for Davie – earning him the nickname Teflon Tim.

While his missteps on Strictly and firings on MasterChef have made tabloid headlines, it's the errors when it comes to news coverage that are arguably most inexcusable at an organisation that prides itself on putting trust and accountability at its heart.

You might remember Davie dodged calls for his resignation earlier this year when it emerged a child narrator on one of its documentaries was the son of a Hamas official - they investigated, apologised and tried to move on, but just over a week ago, Davie found himself going from the frying pan into the fire.

That's when a leaked memo by a former adviser to the corporation was published - accusing the corporation of "serious and systemic" bias in its coverage of issues including Gaza, trans rights and Donald Trump.

Davie's 'strategic invisibility'

For an organisation that talks the talk on trust and accountability being such an important part of what it stands for, time and time again under Davie's tenure, it has felt almost as if - rather than coming out and facing the press – he's perfected the art of strategic invisibility.

While some may see him as a victim of culture wars in the time of Trump, the DG spent the week ignoring the fire alarms going off inside the BBC. The truth is he'd left it far too late. The heat was far too hot for him to do anything else but resign.

Chiming in with other voices on the right, Nigel Huddleston, the shadow culture secretary, told Paste BN that Tim Davie "had to go because there were just too many examples of very specific bias".

Davie's resignation notably came at the end of a week in which critics had denounced a BBC edit of a speech by US President Donald Trump as biased against him.

Huddleston named the review of the BBC charter as one possibility for the corporation to be reformed.

"We'll be having discussions directly with the BBC as well, about what they can do to make sure that they can justify that licence fee," Huddleston said. 

"They've got to look at everything, including who they recruit, the kind of backgrounds that people come from, the political beliefs held by the reporters," he added.

He said an independent body would have to review the BBC coverage regarding bias and action will have to be taken to resolve "cultural issues".

Watch the full interview in the video below:

Paste BN US correspondent Mark Stone has analysed Donald Trump's recent contribution to the debate, saying it was a typical reaction.

"Because he has got a scalp here, he will be enjoying this moment," Stone said.

That is not necessarily making it likelier that he will draw a line under the affair now, Stone added, saying that Trump "doesn't let things go".

This will also have consequences for the BBC's work in Washington, "who will find it difficult", he believes.

By contrast, GB News could be a beneficiary of Trump's media policy, Stone added in a later segment.

He pointed to a new social media post from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in which she called for British viewers to "watch GB News".

GB News was enjoying a "pretty close relationship" with the White House in Washington, and many members of Trump's cabinet attended the news channel's launch party there, he said.

Watch Stone's full analysis on Trump's role in the recent controversy surrounding the BBC below...

Many of the recent controversies surrounding the BBC under Tim Davie's watch have been related to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The conflict has strained relations between the BBC and the Jewish community in particular.

Reacting to Davie's resignation, Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British NGO, has in a statement called for "an independent inquiry into BBC bias".

Tonight's resignations were "an admission through gritted teeth that the much vaunted impartiality of the BBC has been a sham", the statement read.

It added that "the gravest betrayal" was that the corporation "often served as a mouthpiece for Hamas" under Davie.

Based on CAA polling, 92% of British Jews consider BBC coverage to be unfavourable on matters of Jewish interest, the NGO argued.

Here's a rundown of the key controversies the BBC faced during Davie's tenure:

• 2021 Oxford street attack: Ofcom found in 2022 that a BBC online article on an antisemitic attack in London broke its impartiality and accuracy guidelines. It had failed to swiftly correct false implications that the attack's Jewish victims used an anti-Muslim slur;
• Gaza war: A review by former BBC director of television Danny Cohen accused the BBC in 2024 of being "institutionally hostile" to Israel and making "false and damaging" claims on its military campaign in Gaza. It was endorsed by prominent Jewish groups.
• Bob Vylan: The BBC found that its broadcast of the punk rappers' performance at Glastonbury broke its guidelines. Their chants of "death, death to the IDF" (Israel Defence Forces) were available to watch via live stream on iPlayer; 
• Gaza documentary: Ofcom sanctioned the BBC for breaching the Broadcasting Code in its Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary. The corporation failed to disclose a narrator's links to Hamas.

Donald Trump has now also weighed in on tonight's resignations. 

It comes as the corporation is expected to apologise on Monday following concerns about impartiality, including how a speech by Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama.

The concerns regard clips spliced together of the president's speech on January 6 2021, which was part of a documentary broadcast by the BBC before last year's US elections.

Critics say it makes it appear that he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to "fight like hell", suggesting that he was encouraging violence.

Here is his full post on his Truth Social platform:

Political commentator and broadcaster Adam Boulton has shed some light on how the Trump administration may have contributed to Davie and Turness's decisions.

"These two have done the honourable thing to protect the BBC," he told Paste BN. "But they are victims in culture wars in the age of Donald Trump."

"I think the rapid reaction from the White House shows that," he added, in reference to Trump's press secretary posting about the news within minutes (see our 7pm post).

The pair's resignations may have helped the BBC escape sanctions" towards its journalists working in the States, Boulton added. 

"We know the Trump administration has not been shy about pressure on major broadcasters, and I imagine they felt their [exits] might take the pressure off." 

Watch Boulton's full comments in the video below:

Yet another former BBC employee has told Paste BN they think it's "right" that Davie and Turness have resigned.

Danny Cohen,  a former controller of BBC One, said the Prescott report reveals "catastrophic failures" within his former workplace.

The internal report, written by BBC editorial standards advisor Michael Prescott, laid bare a string of causes for concern within the corporation.

Danny Cohen, a former BBC One controller, told Paste BN: "It's not just that the Trump video was faked, it was the fact Mr Davie and Ms Turner knew it was faked for the last six months and they did nothing about it. They remained silent. That's completely unacceptable."

The Telegraph previously reported that the report also highlighted "systemic bias" in BBC Arabic's coverage of the War in Gaza. 

Watch the full interview with Cohen here...