{"id":121089,"date":"2025-11-07T20:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/121089\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T20:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:17:09","slug":"bbc-news-ceo-deborah-turness-tells-staff-its-been-a-difficult-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/121089\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC News CEO Deborah Turness Tells Staff It’s Been A “Difficult” Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: BBC<\/a> News\u2019 top boss has acknowledged it\u2019s been a testing week for the UK broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an email to staff on Friday (full text below), Deborah Turness<\/a> provided something of a pep talk for journalists after a string of bruising revelations about BBC News\u2019 output.<\/p>\n

\n\tTurness, the former president of NBC News International, said: \u201cI\u2019m writing to you today because it\u2019s always difficult when the BBC becomes a story \u2013 as it has, in some quarters, this week. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLike you, I work here because I care passionately about trusted news and impartial journalism. I take pride every day in the quality and consistency of BBC News, and I know that is down to all of you \u2013 your unwavering commitment to our editorial values and your expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt follows The Daily Telegraph obtaining a leaked memo attacking BBC News output. The document was penned by Michael Prescott, who was an external adviser to the BBC board\u2019s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee until June.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 19-page memo revealed how a BBC Panorama documentary selectively edited Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s January 6 speech to make it appear as if the president was encouraging the 2021 Capitol riot. It also accused BBC Arabic<\/a> of having an anti-Israel agenda and alleged that the corporation had been \u201ccaptured by a small group of people\u201d promoting a pro-trans agenda.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrescott\u2019s concerns have prompted questions from Ofcom and UK Parliament\u2019s influential Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Prescott was due to give evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee next week, but the hearing has been postponed. <\/p>\n

\n\tBBC chair Samir Shah, who sat on the corporation\u2019s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee alongside Prescott, will write to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Monday with his response to the allegations. <\/p>\n

\n\tTurness said: \u201cThe chairman will be providing a full response on Monday, and this will be shared with you, but I felt it was important for me to come to you as CEO of BBC News before the end of the week.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tShe thanked staff for coverage of the migrant crisis and the \u201chorrendous\u201d knife attack on a British train last weekend, which left 11 injured. \u201cThank you for all that you do,\u201d Turness said.<\/p>\n

Hello everyone,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing to you today because it\u2019s always difficult when the BBC becomes a story \u2013 as it has, in some quarters, this week. Like you, I work here because I care passionately about trusted news and impartial journalism. I take pride every day in the quality and consistency of BBC News, and I know that is down to all of you \u2013 your unwavering commitment to our editorial values and your expertise.<\/p>\n

You will all have seen the news coverage following the leaking of a letter to the BBC Board from Michael Prescott, who is a former advisor to the BBC\u2019s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC). The EGSC is a sub-committee of the BBC Board.<\/p>\n

You will also be aware that following this week\u2019s coverage, the BBC Chairman has received a letter from Caroline Dinenage, the Chair of the Commons Culture, Media & Sport Committee seeking reassurance from the BBC. The Chairman will be providing a full response on Monday, and this will be shared with you, but I felt it was important for me to come to you as CEO of BBC News before the end of the week.<\/p>\n

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for another week that saw a relentless news agenda. It began with the horrendous knife attack on the LNER train in Huntingdon \u2013 so many of you responded when the call came, despite it being at a weekend. And so many millions came to our live pages and live streams and channels as the event unfolded.<\/p>\n

I would also like to mention our commitment to covering the migrant crisis \u2013 one of the most polarising topics of our times with Ed Thomas\u2019 expose of a criminal network enabling migrants to work illegally in mini-marts across the UK. We know this kind of journalism really matters to our audiences. Equally important is our powerful journalism that\u2019s bringing the truth of what\u2019s happening in Sudan to our UK and global audiences. Barbara Plett-Usher, World Service and BBC Verify have all delivered hard hitting journalism on this story.<\/p>\n

Thank you for all that you do.<\/p>\n

Deborah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: BBC News\u2019 top boss has acknowledged it\u2019s been a testing week for the UK broadcaster. In an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1705,76902,146,85,46,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-121089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-deborah-turness","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}