BBC chair Samir Shah has the full backing of the board after coming under pressure over his handling of the bombshell Michael Prescott memo, which revealed the botched Panorama edit of Donald Trump‘s January 6 speech.
Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s senior independent director, said Shah had the “unanimous” support of the corporation’s board. Thomson revealed the backing during a Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing on Monday, during which she told UK lawmakers: “We are very lucky to have him.”
Thomson said that support for Shah was reaffirmed on Friday evening, soon after board member Shumeet Banerji quit citing governance concerns. Shah said he was “disappointed and surprised” that Banerji’s resignation letter was leaked to BBC News.
Shah was grilled on Monday about his sluggish response to the Prescott memo, which was circulated to the BBC board in October and leaked to The Daily Telegraph in early November. He lifted the lid on the internal disagreements that led to a week-long delay between the Trump edit emerging in The Telegraph and the BBC addressing the error in any detail.
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Shah confirmed that BBC News chiefs wanted to apologize for not signposting the edit more clearly in the Panorama film, but the board blocked this because they felt it failed to address the underlying impression the edit gave: that Trump was inciting violence. Thomson, the BBC’s senior independent director, told lawmakers there was “sharp disagreement” with BBC News CEO Deborah Turness, who maintained that the “edit was justified.”
Shah repeatedly acknowledged that the BBC should have got to grips with the concerns about the Trump edit when it was discussed by the board’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in May. “We should have pursued it to the end, and not wait until it became public discourse,” he said.
Shah, a former independent producer who made BBC current affairs output, said the resignation of BBC News CEO Turness was an “honorable act,” but that the board did not support Tim Davie’s decision to quit. “I wish, and the board wishes, that the director general had not resigned,” he added.
Looking ahead, Shah said: “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 now to fix it.” He added that his most important task is to appoint a successor to Davie, with a job advert for a new director general now published. Shah said the job was “too big for one person” and that the board wants to explore appointing a deputy director general, who is “laser focused” on journalism.
Right-Wing Coup “Ridiculous”
Elsewhere during the lengthy hearing, board member Robbie Gibb dismissed “ridiculous” allegations that he was at the heart of a right-wing coup at the BBC. The theory took root among BBC staff and has been whipped up by left-wing media after Gibb, a former BBC journalist and ex-communications secretary for Theresa May, was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson.
“It’s up there as one of the most ridiculous charges,” Gibb told MPs. “It’s complete nonsense. It’s also deeply offensive to fellow board members, who are … people of great standing in different fields. I’m not even sure what the charge is based on, other than to say it’s complete nonsense.” Thomson added: “I certainly wouldn’t characterize anything I saw in the last couple of weeks as being a board coup.”