Deborah Turness, the former CEO of BBC News, acknowledged a Donald Trump-focused documentary that’s spurred a $10 billion lawsuit from the president did not meet the organization’s editorial standards — but denied it was “a sign of institutional bias.”
During a Wednesday interview, Semafor editor in chief Ben Smith asked Turness, “Do you expect the broader critique that the BBC was basically anti-Trump?”
“No, I don’t,” she said.
“The BBC is the world’s most trusted news brand, because for 104 years, it has not taken sides,” she said. “It has really worked very, very hard … to be impartial.”
“Impartiality is in the BBC’s DNA,” she added.
Turness spoke at Semafor’s “Restoring Trust in Media” summit on Wednesday, a media conference focused on how media executives and personalities are navigating an industry battling abysmal trust levels. Other speakers include Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie and “Meet the Press” anchor Kristen Welker, among others.
The appearance marked Turness’ first public interview since she and BBC director-general Tim Davie resigned after a firestorm erupted over an internal report that ripped the British network’s editing of a 2024 “Panorama” documentary ahead of the U.S. presidential election that spliced parts of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 speech.
“The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love,” Turness wrote to staff. “As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me – and I took the decision to offer my resignation to the Director-General.”
The documentary, which did not air in the U.S., made it appear that Trump urged his supporters to “walk down to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” ahead of the Capitol riot, though he did not make an explicit call for violence.
Still, despite the resignations, the documentary rankled Trump enough to file a $10 billion defamation suit against the BBC in December over the documentary, claiming it was a “brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.” The network has apologized to Trump and removed the documentary from its platforms, but it has denied the documentary amounted to defamation and has sought to have it dismissed. The case is set to go to trial next February.
Turness has previously served as president of NBC News and editor of the U.K.’s ITN channel.
