Senior BBC bosses face lawmakers' questions

Senior managers from the United Kingdom's state broadcaster, the BBC, answered lawmakers' questions on Monday evening about a disastrous documentary that erroneously gave the impression United States President Donald Trump instigated the 2021 Capitol Hill riot.

The managers, including Michael Prescott, the former editorial adviser whose criticism of BBC reporting sparked a scandal about alleged bias, were hauled before members of parliament, or MPs, on the UK's culture, media and sport committee.

Prescott's leaked internal BBC memo that raised concerns about editorial impartiality, especially around the editing of Trump's Jan 6,2021 speech made on the day of the Capitol Hill riot, led to the resignations of the BBC's director general and its head of news, and to threats from Trump that he would seek between $1 billion and $5 billion in damages.

The scandal raised concerns the BBC may not always be neutral in its reporting, which the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is legally required to be.

The BBC's chairman, Samir Shah, was also expected to answer questions at the session, as were members of the board of directors, including Robbie Gibb and Caroline Thomson. Caroline Daniel, another former editorial adviser, was also expected to attend.

While the BBC has apologized to Trump over the way two parts of his speech were spliced together, making it look like he had called on his supporters to storm Capitol Hill, the broadcaster has characterized the incident as an honest mistake and refused to pay compensation.

The BBC's media editor, Katie Razzall, said Shah was under pressure to reassure lawmakers the broadcaster was being well led, and that similar mistakes would not happen again. She said he was also coming under pressure to resign, especially after board member Shumeet Banerji resigned on Friday in what appeared to be "a direct critique" of Shah.

The BBC said after the resignations of Tim Davie, the corporation's director general, and Deborah Turness, its CEO of news, that it needs to put its house in order.

The senior managers who appeared before MPs were also expected to answer questions about other "troubling matters" in Prescott's memo, including "systemic problems" of bias in BBC Arabic's coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict, and alleged one-sided coverage of trans issues.

The cross-party committee's chairwoman, Caroline Dinenage, who is a Conservative Party MP, said before the session that "restoring trust" in the BBC was paramount.

"The BBC board must now begin the long process of rebuilding the corporation's reputation, both at home and abroad, after the damage caused by what has become a seemingly constant stream of crises and missteps," she said.

Some critics have said the board, which is made up of political parties' appointees, could be part of the problem.

earle@mail.chinadailyuk.com