BBC board member Banerji resigns after Trump documentary edit

An independent director on the BBC’s board, Shumeet Banerji, has quit on Friday in the wake of what the public broadcaster said was an incorrect edit of a speech by President Donald Trump and which has prompted the threat of a $5 billion lawsuit.

Banerji, who also serves on the board of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries and is a former chief executive of management consultancy Booz & Company, resigned a few weeks before his four-year term was due to end, the broadcaster said.

The broadcaster’s news arm reported that Banerji had said in a resignation letter that he was upset about governance issues at the top of the corporation.

In the letter, Banerji said he had not been consulted about events leading up to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, BBC News reported.

Davie and Turness quit on November 9 following accusations of bias at the broadcaster, including in the way it edited a speech by Trump that he delivered on January 6, 2021, before his supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington.

The BBC apologised on November 13 for how its “Panorama” news programme had edited the footage of Trump’s speech but said there was no legal basis for him to sue it for defamation.

The BBC is mostly funded by a mandatory £174.50 ($228.56) annual charge on British households that watch live television from any broadcaster or use the BBC’s online video platform.