BBC board member Shumeet Banerji resigns

The BBC board’s director general quit, and Shumeet Banerji has since criticised governance issues at the organization. This is the most recent blow to the broadcaster.

Banerji resigned on Friday, according to the BBC, who announced his departure just weeks before the end of his four-year term.

Banerji resigned from the organization after declaring his dissatisfaction with the organization’s governance.

He added that, according to BBC News, he had not been informed about important news that occurred with the abrupt departures of director general Tim Davie and executive director Deborah Turness.

Both resigned on November 9 after receiving growing criticism for the broadcaster’s handling of political coverage, including the editing of a Donald Trump speech delivered shortly before his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

No legal justification

On November 13, the BBC apologized for how Panorama’s investigative program edited the video. However, it argued that Trump’s lawsuit for defamation had “no legal basis.”

The conflict centers on the Panorama documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast in October 2024, just before Trump won re-election.

Nearly an hour apart, the movie combines two lines from Trump’s January 6 speech to give the impression that he urged supporters to “fight like hell” as they approached the Capitol.

Trump’s supporters claim the speech’s context was removed and the sequence was misleading.

They contend that Trump also urged supporters to “cheer on our brave senators, Congressmen, and women” and “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” in front of the crowd. They claim that the edited version promoted more direct violence.