The Panorama documentary blunder is the latest headline-grabbing capturing scandal to hit the BBC with Mr Davie at the helm.
Here are some of the biggest controversies he has faced in his time at the top of the BBC.
March 2023 – Lineker suspended over tweet
Gary Lineker was suspended from Match Of The Day
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Lineker compared the language used to launch the policy by the Conservatives with Thirties Germany in a tweet.
The former footballer later left the BBC after using Instagram to promote a pro-Palestinian video that used a rat emoji, a symbol used by the Nazis as a slur against Jewish people.
The then-Match of the Day host “apologised unreservedly” and said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” before he left the broadcaster in May this year.
February 2024 – Anti-Semitism row
People take part in an antisemitism protest outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House
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The broadcaster had received a number of complaints about its reporting of the Israel-Hamas war and faced further scrutiny when it was discovered a contestant on the BBC series The Apprentice had made remarks on social media about the conflict.
Ministers and pressure groups were among those to raise concerns about the BBC’s reporting of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 2023 and the Israeli government’s bombing of the Gaza Strip.
July 2024 – Huw Edwards pleads guilty to accessing indecent photographs of children
Former BBC broadcaster Huw Edwards at Westminster Magistrates’ Court
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Edwards was the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader and had delivered the news that the late Queen had died in September 2022.
He was convicted following a year of headlines which began when he was named as the presenter at the centre of a scandal over payments to a young person for sexually explicit images.
February 2025 – Gaza documentary narrated by Hamas official’s son
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary was found to have breached the BBC’s Broadcasting Code
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The BBC was forced to pull a documentary on the war in Gaza after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
The corporation apologised and admitted “serious flaws” in the making of the Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary in February.
The film, which was made for the BBC by the independent production company HOYO Films, was removed from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Mr Davie later told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that Gaza has been “the toughest editorial coverage challenge we’ve ever had”.
July 2025 – MasterChef presenters axed
John Torode and Gregg Wallace were both axed from MasterChef
BBC
MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace was axed by the BBC following a nine-month investigation into misconduct claims.
The 60-year-old announced his departure in a lengthy Instagram statement, marking the end of his 21-year run with the broadcaster.
Wallace had been a regular fixture on BBC screens for almost two decades, best known for co-hosting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals alongside co-judge John Torode.
July 2025 – Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance broadcast live
Bob Vylan performing on the West Holts Stage, during the Glastonbury Festival
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Punk rap duo were investigated by the police over comments made during their Glastonbury performance.
Singer Bobby Vylan led chants of “death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)” during the group’s show on the West Holts Stage, which was livestreamed by the BBC.
In a statement at the time the broadcaster said: “The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence.”
November 2025 – Trump documentary ‘doctored’
President Donald Trump speaks at a “Save America March” in Washington DC on January 6, 2021
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Mr Davie announced he was resigning as the BBC’s Director-General following claims that a speech had been selectively edited in the documentary, Trump: A Second Chance?
The chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, also announced her resignation on Sunday, explaining to staff that the “ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love”.
The BBC error came to light after a memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, raised concerns in the summer about the way clips of Mr Trump’s speech were spliced together.
However, Mr Trump had made the comments nearly an hour apart and in fact had been speaking about elections being “corrupt” when he made the “fight like hell” remark.
