Key issues for senior staff 'Blind spots' and 'sharp differences of opinion'

Senior figures running and advising the BBC have been questioned about the crisis at the broadcaster, which has been threatened with a $1bn lawsuit by Donald Trump.

- Eleni Courea Political correspondent

Here, we look at the main points from yesterday’s session of the culture, media and sport committee.

BBC is ‘not institutionally biased’

Michael Prescott was clear that he did not think the BBC was “institutionally biased” towards any particular agenda.

However, he did say that during his three years as an adviser he witnessed “incipient problems” that were getting worse and seemed to have “systemic causes”.

“I wrote that memo because I am a strong supporter of the BBC,” Prescott said. “The root of my disagreement and slight concern even today is that the BBC was not - and I hope they will change - treating these as having systemic causes. There's real work that needs to be done at the BBC.”

Prescott insisted: “There was no ideology at play here, no party politics” behind his memo and that he was not behind its leak. He said he was not pleased to see it become public and suggested the fact the Telegraph got hold of it meant it was not taken in good faith by people further to the left on the political spectrum.

Memo ‘not comprehensive account’ of internal reviews

One area of contention is to what extent Prescott’s memo fairly reflects internal reports drafted for the BBC’s standards committee by the longstanding journalist David Grossman on internal editorial issues.

The BBC chair, Samir Shah, has described the Prescott memo as a “partial” and “personal” account of internal discussions.

Caroline Daniel, who like Prescott is a former editorial adviser to the BBC’s standards committee, said yesterday that the memo “does not provide a comprehensive view of what was in the David Grossman report”, specifically on the BBC’s Panorama documentary about Trump. She did not go so far as to describe it as biased but said it was Prescott’s “personal account”.