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The recent departures of the BBC's director general and its news chief over allegations of bias have been portrayed as an internal "coup" by a former newspaper editor.

David Yelland, who previously ran the Sun newspaper from 1998 to 2003, claimed during a broadcast that the exits of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness followed systematic undermining by people close to the BBC board over an extended period.

"It constituted a coup, and more serious than that, it was an internal operation. There existed individuals within the corporation, extremely connected to the leadership ... serving on the governing body, who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team over a duration of [time] and this has been continuing for a considerable period. What occurred yesterday wasn't merely in vacuum," the former editor commented.

Leadership Failure Highlighted

"What has occurred here is there was a failure of leadership. I don't hold responsible the leader [Samir Shah] as an person, but the responsibility of the chair of any organization, a corporation – encompassing the BBC – is to maintain their CEO, their senior executive, in position or dismiss them. And that has failed to happen, because Tim Davie hadn't been fired. He stepped down and so there was, that is the essence of, a breakdown of leadership."

Background of Recent Dispute

The resignations on Sunday came after period of attacks from the U.S. administration and conservative commentators in the UK that were triggered by claims published by the Daily Telegraph.

The publication reported a leaked account of the conclusions of a previous independent external adviser to its editorial guidelines committee, Michael Prescott, who left his role during the summer.

He had criticized the modification of a address by Donald Trump in an edition of Panorama, which he asserted made it appear that Trump had encouraged the US Capitol incident. Two portions of the address that were spliced together were spoken an hour apart, and the edit did not note that Trump had additionally stated he wanted his supporters to demonstrate non-violently.

Internal Reactions and External Viewpoints

Yelland's comments echo a mood of concern described by sources within BBC News on Sunday evening, with one saying: "It seems like a coup. This is the outcome of a campaign by partisan opponents of the BBC."

Others, including Sky's previous policy correspondent Adam Boulton, have stated the overall impression that Trump encouraged the event was essentially accurate. It is common practice to edit together sections of a long speech to properly condense it.

Handover Plans and Organizational Effect

Davie stated his departure would wouldn't be instant and that he was "working through" scheduling to ensure an "orderly handover" over the following months. Turness stated controversy around the Panorama modification had "arrived at a point where it is causing harm to the BBC – an organization that I value."

On Monday, the BBC journalist Nick Robinson revealed there had been inaction at the highest levels of the BBC because, while its experienced journalists wanted to apologize for the editing error – but maintain there was "no plan to deceive" the viewers – the politically appointed leaders wanted to go further.

Political Response and Broader Context

Shah is expected to apologize on Monday to the Commons' cultural affairs panel, and to supply further details on the Panorama program in his response to the panel, which had requested how he would handle the issues.

Commenting after the resignations, the government minister Louise Sandher-Jones dismissed claims the BBC was systematically biased. The public service official told Sky News: "When you examine the vast spectrum of national matters, local issues, global affairs, that it has to report, I believe its output is highly respected. When I speak to individuals who've got very strongly held views on those, they're still utilizing the BBC for a lot of their news, it's forming their views on this."