The chairman of the BBC has affirmed that he is “not someone who walks away” from challenges, following criticism regarding his handling of the recent controversy surrounding Panorama’s editing of a Donald Trump speech.
Addressing a parliamentary committee, Samir Shah apologized for “the mistakes that have been made and the impact that has had,” while stating his intention to “fix it.”
The controversy stemmed from the publication of an internal memo by former editorial adviser Michael Prescott, who informed MPs of worsening “systemic problems” within BBC News, while clarifying that he did not perceive institutional bias within the corporation.
The parliamentary committee also heard from BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, who dismissed claims of a politically-motivated “coup” at the top of the corporation as “ridiculous.”
The outcry over the Prescott memo led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness earlier this month, igniting a significant debate about the state of the BBC and its journalistic practices.
At the outset of his testimony, Shah apologized to “all the people who believe in the BBC and care for it.”
When questioned about whether he was considering his position, he responded: “My job now is to steady the ship, put it on even keel.”
“I’m not somebody who walks away from a problem. I think my job is to fix it. That’s what I’m doing.”
A job advertisement for the new director general was released shortly before Monday’s parliamentary hearing commenced, with Shah indicating his desire to create a deputy role, citing that the top job is “too big for one person.”
The BBC has faced criticism for its perceived failure to adequately address the concerns raised by Prescott, and for not promptly addressing the controversy following the leak to the Telegraph.
“Looking back, I think we should have made the decision [to apologise] earlier,” Shah stated.
“I think there is an issue about how quickly we respond, the speed of our response.”
He cited the time required to properly investigate the issue and reach an agreement on an apology, explaining: “It took time to get it right, what the actual apology was for.”
The MPs were informed of a “continuing and sharp difference of opinion” between some board members and executives regarding the content of the apology.
According to Shah, the dispute centered on whether the BBC should apologize for giving the impression that Trump had made a “call to violent action,” or simply for failing to clarify that two sections of the speech had been edited together.
Another board member, Caroline Thomson, noted that numerous colleagues felt the Panorama clip had presented a “misleading impression” of Trump’s message, whereas the News department maintained it was fair given the overall content of the speech.
She said: “News continued to maintain that actually the impression given, despite the edit, was correct because the gist of the speech by Trump had, for example, the use of the word ‘fight’ 15 times and only talked about peace once.”
“And they felt that the edit was justified but it should have been a more transparent edit. We felt that the edit had led to a more profound problem.”
Shah stated that he “applauded” Turness for doing the “honourable and proper” thing by stepping down as CEO of News, but did not believe “that meant that the director general had also to resign.”
“The board wishes that the director general had not resigned.”
“He had our full confidence throughout,” Shah affirmed.
The role of Sir Robbie, a former BBC editor and director of communications for former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who joined the BBC board in 2021, was also scrutinized during the parliamentary session.
Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage observed that he had “come in for quite a lot of stick in the media for somehow wielding his right-wing bias to influence the board,” and inquired about speculation of a politically-motivated “board-level orchestrated coup.”
In response, Sir Robbie stated: “It’s up there as one of the most ridiculous charges… it’s complete nonsense.”
Sir Robbie informed the MPs that he had “been the victim of that weaponisation” of the debate surrounding the BBC.
He stated that his two years as Downing Street director of communications were significantly less than the 25 years he dedicated to working as a producer and editor for the BBC, and insisted on his “hugely impartial” conduct while on the broadcaster’s board.
Meanwhile, Prescott told MPs he sent his memo to the BBC board after growing increasingly frustrated by a lack of action to tackle “systemic” failings in BBC News while an editorial adviser to the board between 2022 and 2025.
In addition to the Panorama edit, his memo documented other “troubling matters” including claims of bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, and one-sided coverage of trans issues.
“We kept seeing incipient problems which I thought were not being tackled properly, and indeed I thought the problems were getting worse,” he told the House of Commons committee.
“It became pretty clear to me the board was not taking stuff as seriously as I hoped and assumed it would.”
He identified himself as a “strong supporter” of the BBC and described Davie as “a supreme talent,” but stated that the outgoing director general had “a blind spot on editorial failings” that contributed to his downfall.
Prescott also said he was often met with denial by BBC managers when he raised concerns about issues identified in internal reports commissioned by the BBC board from former Newsnight journalist David Grossman.
“You do get levels of denial, as per my memo. Whether it was the issues within covering the US presidential race or Israel-Gaza or whatever, you got these reports through from David Grossman, and the management’s response was just to plain deny and say, ‘Well, we don’t agree with them’.”
He was “in despair” when BBC management originally “would defend and stand by” Panorama’s edit of Trump’s speech, he said.
But he said he had hoped the matter could be “sorted out quietly”, and didn’t know how the memo had been leaked.
Caroline Daniel, who along with Prescott, also used to be an external editorial adviser, was asked if she thought her former colleague’s memo was biased.
“I would not choose to characterise it in that way, I think it’s a personal account of what Michael wanted to bring before the board.”
She also told the MPs there was a “robust debate” about some issues, but the BBC did take action as a result.
“In my view, was the BBC willing to have a proper conversation, debate, and actually take action? In my view, yes, they were,” she said.
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