UPDATE - BBC director general resigns amid scandal over doctored Trump footage

REVISES HEADLINE, ADDS US PRESIDENT'S REMARKS

By Burak Bir and Yasin Gungor

LONDON/ISTANBUL (AA) - BBC Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness both resigned Sunday amid accusations that a speech by US President Donald Trump in a documentary aired last year by the broadcaster was edited to mislead viewers.

Davie, who had held the job for five years, recently faced increasing pressure over a series of missteps and allegations of bias.

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.

Announcing his resignation, Davie said: "Like all public organizations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable."

Saying that while not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News "has understandably contributed to my decision."

"Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made, and as director general, I have to take ultimate responsibility," he added.

Trump celebrated the resignations, saying the two executives were "caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th."

Writing on his Truth Social social media platform, he thanked The Telegraph "for exposing these corrupt 'journalists,'" accusing the executives of being "very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a presidential election."

Trump also criticized the British broadcaster for being from "a foreign country, one that many consider our number one ally," calling the actions "a terrible thing for democracy!"

In his speech in Washington, DC on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

However, in the BBC documentary edit, he was shown 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 two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart, the BBC reported.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt labeled the BBC a "leftist propaganda machine" and "100% fake news.”