LONDON (Reuters) -The author of a report that plunged the BBC into crisis said the broadcaster was not “institutionally biased”, and he had hoped his criticisms would lead to improvements.
Michael Prescott, a former editorial adviser, compiled a dossier on issues within BBC News, including failings in the editing of a Trump speech, allegations of bias in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and trans issues.
The report, which was leaked, led to the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, and the threat by Trump to sue for up to $5 billion, plunging the public broadcaster into its biggest crisis for decades.
“I do not think it’s (the BBC) institutionally biased,” Prescott told a committee of lawmakers on Monday. “Let’s be very clear, tons of stuff the BBC does is world class, both factual programming and non-factual programming.”
He said he thought the political reporting out of Westminster was exemplary, but he had written his memo because he believed there were “systemic causes” behind the problems he had found.
He said he had also sent his memo to the Department of Media and the media regulator, Ofcom, because he wanted the corporation to improve the way it dealt with any issues of bias.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Muvija M; Editing by Kate Holton)
