Tim Davie stepping down as director-general of the BBC comes after several controversies faced by the broadcaster in recent years.
His resignation came at the same time as that of BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness, at the end of a week in which concerns about impartiality were raised 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,” Mr Davie wrote in a note sent to staff.
“Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”
Mr Davie has been in the role for five years and at the BBC for 20 in total, having previously worked as director of marketing, director of audio and music, and chief executive of BBC Studios.
Here are the controversies the broadcaster has faced in recent years.
The Trump documentary edit
A memo sent in the summer by a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, highlighting the edit of a Donald Trump speech as well as other concerns about impartiality, was first reported by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.
The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of a speech made by the US president on 6 January 2021, featured in the Panorama programme Trump: A Second Chance?
It made it appear that Mr Trump told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”, although the quotes were made during separate parts of the speech. The episode was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.
Bob Vylan at Glastonbury
In July, punk-rap duo Bob Vylan led chants of “death to the IDF” while on stage at Glastonbury, a performance which was live-streamed as part of the BBC’s coverage of the festival.
Afterwards, the broadcaster said it would no longer live broadcast “high risk” performances, and suggested disciplinary action could be taken against staff who failed to halt the stream.
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit received four complaints about the performance relating to incitement to violence, terrorism or ethnic cleansing, hate speech and expressions of antisemitism.
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In a ruling given in September, it found the stream of the performance had breached its editorial standards.
Following the backlash over the Glastonbury gig, Bob Vylan said in a post on Instagram that “we are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people”.
MasterChef
In the same month, presenter Gregg Wallace was sacked from cooking show MasterChef after an investigation into historical allegations of misconduct upheld multiple accusations against him. These first emerged towards the end of 2024.
Wallace, who co-presented the show for almost 20 years, said he was “deeply sorry for any distress caused” and that he “never set out to harm or humiliate”, but also said in a statement released ahead of the publication of a summary of the report that he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
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His co-presenter John Torode left the show the following week after an allegation he used an “extremely offensive racist term” was upheld, the BBC said.
In October, Wallace announced he was suing the broadcaster for “distress and harassment”.
Gary Lineker
No stranger to controversy during his last few years at the BBC, Gary Lineker stepped down from hosting Match Of The Day and World Cup coverage in May.
It came after he apologised unreservedly for sharing a social media post from the Palestine Lobby group that had been illustrated with a rat – which has been used to represent Jewish people in antisemitic propaganda, including Nazi Germany.
He said he had not known about the rat’s symbolism.
“I would never consciously repost anything antisemitic – it goes against everything I stand for,” Lineker said in a statement as he confirmed his resignation. “However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.”
The former England star had previously been temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023, after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Conservative government’s asylum policy.
His temporary suspension led pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer to both announce they would not appear on Match of the Day, and a shortened show went ahead without commentary, pundit analysis, or post-match interviews.
The incident sparked a report, which decided that high-profile BBC presenters outside of its news coverage should be able to express their views on political issues as long as they stop short of campaigning.
Gaza documentary
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was pulled from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged that the 13-year-old boy narrating the programme was the son of a deputy minister in the Hamas-run government.
The documentary was made by independent production company Hoyo Films.
A BBC review into the controversial programme said three members of the independent production company knew about the role of the boy’s father – but no one within the corporation was aware.
In July, the BBC said it had breached its own editorial guidelines by failing to disclose the full identity of the child narrator’s father – Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
In October, an Ofcom investigation found the documentary had breached the broadcasting code.
Huw Edwards
In April 2024, veteran news presenter Huw Edwards resigned from the BBC, nine months after coming off air following accusations of paying a teenager thousands of pounds for sexually explicit pictures.
Just a few months later, it emerged he had remained one of the broadcaster’s highest-paid stars of the year, despite his suspension.
Days later, new allegations emerged – and he was charged and pleaded guilty in court to three counts of “making” indecent images of children, after receiving the illegal images as part of a WhatsApp conversation.
The court heard how he paid up to £1,500 to a paedophile who sent him 41 illegal images between December 2020 and August 2021, seven of which were of the most serious type.
The disgraced broadcaster avoided jail, but was given a six-month suspended sentence.
Strictly Come Dancing
Ahead of the 2024 series of BBC favourite Strictly Come Dancing, producers said they would introduce staff chaperones into all future rehearsals.
It followed the departure of two professional dancers following complaints about their behaviour.
Following an investigation, the BBC upheld “some, but not all” of the allegations made against Giovanni Pernice by his 2023 dance partner Amanda Abbington.
Abbington described an apology from the corporation as vindication, while Pernice denied displaying “abusive or threatening behaviour” and said the majority of the complaints had not been upheld.
Another professional dancer, Graziano Di Prima, also left the show amid reports of alleged misconduct.
Apology over Diana interview
In 2021, a report into Martin Bashir‘s bombshell 1995 programme with Princess Diana found the journalist had “deceived and induced” her brother to secure the interview.
By using fake bank statements, Mr Bashir made a “serious breach” of BBC guidelines on straight-dealing, the Lord Dyson report concluded.
Mr Davie, who was not at the BBC at the time the programme was made, issued a “full and unconditional” apology after the findings were released, and the corporation sent written apologies to Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as to Prince Charles and Earl Spencer.
Mr Bashir also apologised and said the faking of bank statements was a “stupid thing to do” and “an action I deeply regret”, but added he felt it had “no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview”.
Former director-general Lord Hall, who was the BBC’s director of news and current affairs when the Diana interview was screened, said he accepted the corporation’s 1996 inquiry into how the sit-down was secured “fell well short of what was required”.
