Chairman Samir Shah says BBC was too slow in responding to Panorama Trump edit

BBC chairman Samir Shah has said the BBC was too slow in responding to the Panorama edit of US president Donald Trump.

Mr Shah gave evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Monday after MPs asked what actions he would take following a leaked impartiality memo which raised concerns that a speech by Mr Trump on January 6 2021 was selectively edited.

The Panorama documentary was broadcast a week before the US election, with clips of the speech spliced together so it appeared he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.

When asked why the board did not apologise for the edit when it was first flagged by David Grossman, he said: “Looking back, I think we should have made the decision earlier. I think in May, as it happens.

“I think there is an issue about how quickly we respond, the speed of our response. Why do we not do it quickly enough? Why do we take so much time? And this was another illustration of that.

“We should have, the collective, we should have pursued it to the end and got to the bottom of it and not wait, as we did, until it became public discourse.”

Following reports of the leaked memo, it took nearly a week for the BBC to issue an apology.

When asked about the delay, Mr Shah said: “I needed to understand what went wrong and to get the right answer. Getting the right answer is really important.

“It took time to get it right. We knew what the actual apology was for. I said it wasn’t just about splicing, the editing. It was about the impression and that had to be done properly and investigated thoroughly.

“I needed to be sure and I was right about what I was saying. This is a very, very important error, and I needed to make sure that what I was apologising for was fully sourced and fully right. It needed to be right, and it took its time.”

The fallout from the report led to the resignation of both the director-general Tim Davie and the head of news Deborah Turness.

Mr Shah told the Committee he “spent a great deal of time” trying to stop Mr Davie from resigning.

He said: “I do not think the director-general should have resigned.

“I think that the act by the director of news was an honourable and proper act. I think she (Turness) took responsibility for which I will again say I applaud her for doing so.

“I do not think that that meant that the director-general at all had to resign. However, when you read the director-general’s reason for resigning, certainly this was one factor, but he also says there were many other factors that led to that.

“Can I say the board wishes that the director-general had not resigned. He had our full confidence throughout.”

A job advert for the BBC director-general role has since gone live on the BBC’s careers website.

The US president has since said he would sue the corporation following its apology over the Panorama edit.