BBC may not be in 'safe hands' under its chair, says committee head

Under new BBC chair Samir Shah's leadership, the culture select committee has raised concerns that the BBC board is in safe hands, according to MPs on Monday, who described his findings as

wishy-washy. After a turbulent period for the BBC, which saw its director general and head of news resign after allegations of impartiality in its reporting, Shah appeared in front of the Commons committee. Dame Caroline Dinenage, the most senior member of the committee, told BBC World Tonight after the hearing, she was worried about a lack of

grip at the forefront of BBC governance. Shah told the Commons committee that he would not walk away from his work, but that if you steady the ship and "fix it.

Shah and other senior BBC figures were summoned to testify about how the corporation is responding to questions over the company's reporting of bias. The row was triggered by the leakage of a memo written by an ex-independence advisor on editorial integrity, which included criticism of how a Donald Trump speech was edited by the Panorama programme. Two of the BBC's most senior executives have resigned, the US president has threatened to sue, and senior politicians in the United Kingdom have pressed the company. Asked about Shah's promises to the committee, Conservative MP Dame Caroline said:

He didn't really have direct answers on the issues of how to get the BBC to respond faster and move more firmly. We were really looking for hard evidence that the BBC board is going to get to grips with this. I'm not entirely positive that they will and will.

When asked about Shah's role, she said:

The BBC can't be left without a [director general] and without a chair

- someone must be present to lead the march to replace the leader.

However, I don't think we as a committee are overwhelmingly concerned that the board is in safe hands.

We're going to need a lot more detailed answers to questions like the ones we were seeing today,

she continued. everything was very wishy-washy. There wasn't a hint that there was no evidence that the BBC was under surveillance.

The BBC had serious issues with editorial decision making, Ofcom's chief Dame Melanie Dawes said on Tuesday,

serial problems have arisen recently with editorial choice making. The board has a lot to do to get it right,

the broadcasting regulator chief said.

Shah told the committee that the hunt for a new director general had started, and that he wanted to start a deputy role because the job was

too big for one person. He also told the committee that the BBC had been too late to react to controversies surrounding Trump's speech from 6 January 2021 had been edited.

We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're all going to celebrate our brave senators and congressmen and women,Trump said in the address.And we fight,

the speaker said more than 50 minutes into the address. We fight like hell.

We're going to walk down to the Capitol,'

the clip from the Panorama show him saying. and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.

The BBC apologised for the edit after the leaked memo triggered widespread scrutiny and criticism from the White House more than a year after it had first been broadcast. Later, the corporation said it had given

the wrong impression [Trump] had initiated a call for violent action,

but Shah said on Monday that it had taken too long to do so due to an internal disagreement over the wording and nature of the apology. It took time to get it right, he told the committee, indicating what the real apology was for.

Though the BBC has apologised for the edit, it has unashamed Trump's argument that he has reason to sue the corporation for defamation, and that it will not provide financial compensation, as the president's lawyers had expected. Michael Prescott, who previously worked as an outside advisor to the BBC on editorial matters, wrote the leaked memo. He said there had been

systemic

failures on a variety of topics, including allegations of bias in how BBC Arabic had covered the Israel-Gaza conflict and BBC Arabic's coverage of trans issues. Prescott said he thought the BBC was

getting worseand that the board wasnot taking it as seriously as I hoped

and said that he did not believe the organization to be

institutionally biased,while still denying that the organization wasinherently biased. Other senior figures connected to the BBC were also present at the Monday's hearing. Shah said in an email to staff on Monday that replacing Tim Davie will be a top priority for him in the coming months. He said work was ongoing to determine whether or not further action was required to address the issues raised in the leaked memo. Shah also said that a investigation into how the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee operates will be carried out to ensure it has the appropriate resources, represents a broad range of viewpoints, and is accountable. Both Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, who died within hours of each other in a dramatic shake-up at the top of the BBC, have denied that there was systematic bias in the corporation's reports.