BBC board member resigns over 'governance issues'

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - BBC announced on Friday that one of its board members, Shumeet Banerji, confirmed his resignation over "governance issues" at the top of the corporation.

Banerji explained in a letter that he was "not consulted" about the events leading up to the departures of the director general, Tim Davie, and BBC News chief executive, Deborah Turness.

Concerns are said to have grown over the BBC board’s governance which is responsible for oversight and strategy of the corporation, with Banerji directly criticizing chairman Samir Shah and other members.

Banerji's resignation followed those of Davie and Turness in early November amid accusations that a speech by US President Donald Trump in a documentary aired last year by the broadcaster was edited to mislead viewers.

It came after The Telegraph recently published a leaked internal BBC memo which suggested that the Panorama program, which was shown a week before the 2024 presidential election, edited two parts of Trump's speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.

Trump has since reiterated his threat to launch a $1 billion legal action against the BBC, despite an apology by the public broadcaster. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, he said: "I think I have an obligation to do it, you can’t allow people to do that. I guess I have to. They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally."