Tim Davie said the BBC’s “enemies” did not define the narrative about Britain’s public broadcaster.
The outgoing head of the BBC says it will not be defined by its “enemies” as Britain’s public broadcaster faces a public relations and leadership crisis and a legal threat from US President Donald Trump.
In a call with staff on Tuesday, BBC Director-General Tim Davie acknowledged mistakes had been made but said he was “deeply proud” of the publicly funded broadcaster.
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“We will thrive, and this story is not just given to us by our enemies. It is our story,” Davey said.
Mr Davie said the BBC needed to protect its work in the face of increasing attacks on the media.
“I think we have to fight for journalism,” Davey said.
“There are difficult times, but we’re just doing a good job,” he added.
“And that says it louder than any newspaper, more than any weaponization. We are the best of what I think we should be as a society.”
Davey’s comments come as the BBC grapples with accusations of bias following the leak of an internal memo accusing producers of misleadingly editing footage of President Trump’s speech before the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
President Trump has threatened to sue the BBC over edited footage shown in the Panorama documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” unless the organization makes a “full and fair” retraction and compensation by Friday.
BBC bosses acknowledged that footage that appeared to show Trump directly encouraging the storming of the Capitol was misleading, but rejected claims of systemic bias.
Mr Davie and the BBC’s head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned on Sunday amid the fallout from the controversy, leaving the broadcaster without a leader as it faces a mid-term review of its governance and regulatory arrangements by the government.
The BBC, which derives most of its funding from Britain’s approximately 24 million license fee payers, has faced accusations of bias across the ideological spectrum.
Conservative politicians and media outlets have long accused the BBC of liberal bias, but the broadcaster has also faced criticism from the left over its coverage of political issues such as Israel’s war in Gaza.
Despite its critics, the BBC has repeatedly been rated as Britain’s most trusted news organization.
A Reuters Institute for Journalism study last year found that 62% of respondents said they trusted the BBC, more than any other broadcaster surveyed.
A poll on the BBC’s allegations of bias revealed that public opinion is divided along party lines.
In a YouGov poll released on Tuesday, 31% of respondents said the broadcaster supported left-wing views, while 19% said it leans to the right.
73 per cent of British Reform Party voters and 52 per cent of Conservative voters identify a left-wing bias, while 32 per cent of Labor voters identify a right-wing bias.
Half of respondents said the BBC had no political bias or were unaware of it.
