BBC ‘not institutionally biased’, MPs are told

THE BBC is not institutionally biased, the author of a leaked memo on impartiality at the corporation has said.

- HANNAH ROBERTS

Former BBC editorial adviser Michael Prescott appeared before the Culture, Media And Sport Committee yesterday

Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee, faced questions from MPs yesterday after he raised concerns that a Panorama episode included selective editing of a speech made by US President Donald Trump before disorder at the US Capitol in 2021.

Mr Prescott told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee he did not know how his memo, which he had shared to the DCMS and Ofcom, was leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

He said: “At the most fundamental level I wrote that memo, let me be clear, because I am a strong supporter of the BBC. The BBC employs talented professionals across all of its factual and nonfactual programmes, and most people in this country, certainly myself included, might go as far as to say that they love the BBC.

“What troubled me was that during my three years on the BBC standards committee, we kept seeing incipient problems which I thought were not being tackled properly, and indeed I thought the problems were getting worse.”