(MENAFN) Senior BBC executives and former editorial advisers were questioned by members of parliament after a leaked memo alleged bias at the corporation, triggering two prominent resignations and a threatened legal claim from U.S. President Donald Trump, as stated by reports.

BBC chair Samir Shah, non-executive director Sir Robbie Gibb, senior independent director Caroline Thomson, and former advisers Caroline Daniel and Michael Prescott appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee.

Prescott, the former external adviser responsible for the leaked memo, had accused BBC Panorama of misrepresenting a Trump speech through its editing. When asked whether he believed the broadcaster was “institutionally biased,” Prescott responded, “I don’t.”

“Let’s be very clear. Tons of stuff the BBC does is world-class factual programming… I think the standard of BBC Westminster is exemplary, and that’s why I keep saying these were incipient problems. We were finding the odd problem here and there,” he added.

He cautioned, however, that when problems were identified, “they appeared to have systemic causes that were not addressed,” emphasizing that “there’s real work that needs to be done at the BBC.”

Caroline Daniel, who served on the BBC standards committee, told MPs that her experience was that the corporation “took issues of impartiality extremely seriously.” She described “a continuous process, an active debate” over coverage decisions across thousands of hours of programming. “Was the BBC willing to have a proper conversation, debate and actually take action? In my view, yes,” she said.

Much of the scrutiny focused on the Panorama episode that led to the resignations. Prescott acknowledged he initially felt the program featured “more anti-Trump people” and was not “as fair and balanced as you might expect, typically from the BBC,” though he “rather enjoyed” it at the time.

Asked if he agreed with Trump’s assertion that the documentary damaged his reputation, Prescott said he could not think of “anything” he agreed with the former president on.

Trump had indicated plans to sue the BBC for between $1 billion and $5 billion over the editing of his speech for the documentary, despite the broadcaster issuing an apology. The BBC apologized for splicing together two lines from his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on its Panorama program but stated it would not provide compensation or accept the claim of defamation.

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