BBC director general Tim Davie, news CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
London: The Director General of Britain’s BBC, Tim Davie, and the Chief Executive of News, Deborah Turness, have resigned following mounting criticism over alleged bias at the corporation, including the editing of a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The BBC has been embroiled in a series of allegations after an internal report by a former standards adviser was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, which cited failings in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, trans issues and a speech made by Trump, as reported by Reuters.
The White House had recently denounced the broadcaster as a “propaganda machine” after its flagship Panorama programme was found to have edited two parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to encourage the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.
Trump in the BBC documentary was shown telling his supporters that "we’re going to walk down to the Capitol" and that they would "fight like hell", remarks he made in a different part of his speech.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Davie, who has led the BBC since 2020, said he had taken the decision after reflecting on the “very intense personal and professional demands” of the position.
"This is entirely my decision, and I remain very thankful to the Chair and Board for their unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure, including during recent days," news agency quoted Davie as saying.
Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the BBC as “100% fake news" and a "propaganda machine" in an interview published on Friday. Davie will stay on for the next few months while a replacement is found.
Deborah Turness, the Chief Executive of BBC News, also stepped down from her position. In a message to staff, she rejected the recent allegations, stating that claims of institutional bias within BBC News were unfounded.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
