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

MPs on the Culture Select Committee have raised concerns that the BBC board is not in "safe hands" under the leadership of new chair Samir Shah, describing his responses as "wishy-washy."

Shah appeared before the Commons committee on Monday following a turbulent period for the BBC, which saw its Director-General and Head of News resign amid allegations of partiality in its reporting.

Dame Caroline Dinenage, the chair of the committee, told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight after the hearing that she was worried about a lack of "grip" at the forefront of BBC governance.

Shah told the committee that he would not walk away from his work, stating his intention to "steady the ship" and "fix it."

The Controversy

Shah and other senior BBC figures were summoned to testify about how the corporation is responding to questions over bias. The row was triggered by the leak of a memo written by a former independent adviser on editorial standards, which criticised how a Donald Trump speech was edited by the Panorama programme.

Following the leak, two of the BBC's most senior executives resigned, the US President threatened to sue, and senior UK politicians placed pressure on the corporation.

Asked about Shah's assurances to the committee, 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."

On Shah's position, she added: "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 convinced that the board is in safe hands."

"We're going to need a lot more detailed answers... everything was very wishy-washy," she continued.

Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of the media regulator Ofcom, stated on Tuesday that the BBC had "serious issues with editorial decision-making." She added that "serial problems have arisen recently" and the board "has a lot to do to get it right."

The 'Panorama' Edit

Shah told the committee that the hunt for a new Director-General had started and that he wanted to introduce a deputy role because the job was "too big for one person."

He also admitted the BBC had been too late to react to controversies surrounding the editing of Donald Trump's speech from 6 January 2021.

In the original address, Mr Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to celebrate our brave senators and congressmen and women." More than 50 minutes later, he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell."

However, the clip broadcast on Panorama spliced these sections together, showing him saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... 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 the programme was first broadcast. The corporation acknowledged it had given "the wrong impression" that Mr Trump had initiated a call for violent action.

Shah explained the delay was due to internal disagreement over the wording and nature of the apology. "It took time to get it right," he told the committee.

While the BBC has apologised for the edit, it has rejected Mr Trump's argument that he has grounds to sue for defamation, and stated it will not provide financial compensation.

Systemic Failures

Michael Prescott, the former external adviser who wrote the leaked memo, alleged there had been "systemic" failures on a variety of topics, including bias in BBC Arabic's coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict and trans issues.

Mr Prescott said he thought the BBC was "getting worse" and that the board was "not taking it as seriously as I hoped," though he clarified that he did not believe the organisation to be "institutionally biased."

In an email to staff on Monday, Shah said that replacing Tim Davie will be a "top priority" for him in the coming months. He added that work was ongoing to determine whether further action was required to address the issues raised in the leaked memo.

Shah also announced a review into how the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee operates to ensure it has appropriate resources, represents a "broad range of viewpoints," and is accountable.

Both Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness, who resigned within hours of each other during the shake-up, have denied that there was systematic bias in the corporation's reporting.