By Nathan Sparkes, Hacked Off CEO

Yesterday Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, resigned from his role. He was joined by Head of News Deborah Turness, who also stepped down.

This follows the publication of a report from a former newspaper reporter and public affairs professional which accused the BBC, among other things, of doctoring a video of a Trump speech in such a way as to create a misleading impression of what he had said.

Hacked Off is concerned with standards in newspapers and their websites which, unlike the BBC, are not ultimately subject to independent regulation.  As such, we don’t take a view on the BBC’s conduct in this case, or on its leadership.

But several points arise in respect of the press, in relation to the developments of the last few days.

Firstly, it is deeply hypocritical for The Telegraph to criticise the BBC for standards failings given its own record.

There are plenty of examples of poor and inaccurate reporting in The Telegraph.  To take a more recent example, on August 14^th 2025, it published a frontpage story with the headline “One in 12 in London is illegal migrant”.

The Telegraph used two figures to come to this statistic: reported numbers of “illegal migrants” and the population of London. Both were wrong.

The newspaper managed to underestimate the population of London by 2 million people.  Its figure for “illegal migrants” was based on National Insurance registrations for non-EU foreign nationals, which will have included a number of people living in the UK legally.

Indeed, all the figures it used were based on a survey commissioned by Thames Water to identify “transient” users of its service in London, and not intended to make any findings on illegal migration whatsoever.

It was an absurd and politically biased error, splashed across the frontpage of the newspaper.  It is of a kind which The Telegraph and other newspapers would aggressively criticise had it been broadcast by the BBC, and had the bias been in a different direction.  And yet there were no calls for the head of Chris Evans, editor the Telegraph.

And it isn’t just The Telegraph.  The Times, another partisan newspaper, used an editorial to accuse the BBC of “routinely confusing journalism with activism”.

Yet in the last few weeks, it published an article claiming to feature the words of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, criticising the plans of Democratic candidate (now Mayor) Zohran Mamdani.

The reality was that, while The Times had indeed spoken to a Bill de Blasio, it was not the former Mayor of New York, but rather, a wine importer from Long Island.  The former Mayor had in fact supported Mamdani’s candidacy.

Defenders of The Telegraph and The Times will argue that the newspapers are different to the BBC, because the taxpayer isn’t paying for their failures.  They would be wrong.

In fact, the British public pump millions of pounds into subsidising the national press every year.

Some of this comes in the form of state advertising contracts, arranged through national newspapers’ associations to the exclusion of the independent and locally-owned press.

Over £1bn of it is estimated to come in the form of a tax-break, with unregulated newspapers dodging VAT for print and online sales.

And whereas the BBC and other broadcasters are ultimately subject to independent Ofcom regulation, the press is not.  The Telegraph and other newspapers have refused to join an independent regulator – one which wouldn’t even touch on the bias they so heavily criticise the BBC for, but would merely guarantee basic standards of accuracy and ethics.

The second point illustrated here is the power of the press.  Both this Government and the previous Government have tended to argue that the press is less powerful today than it was in the past.  Try telling that to Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, who have resigned after a long campaign against the BBC’s leadership from The Telegraph and other newspapers.

To be clear, Hacked Off takes no view on Mr Davie and Ms Turness’ leadership of the BBC, and their decision to resign.

But it is evidence of the extraordinary power of the newspaper media in the UK that they should be driven to leaving their posts by this press campaign.

Thirdly and finally, a post on “X” from President Trump raises profound questions about the relationship between politicians, the powerful, and the UK press, and ought to cause some reflection at The Telegraph.

He has said,

“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt “Journalists.””

The principal role of journalism in a free society is to hold truth to power.  The relationship between the press and politicians ought to be an uncomfortable one, with newspapers persistently scrutinising politicians and holding them to account.

To receive a direct endorsement from a politician, perhaps the most powerful politician in the world, in the form a “thank you”, no less,  would make any serious journalist ashamed.  As if a free newspaper had acted as President Trump’s personal attack dog, to get an outcome he wanted.

The Telegraph could have shot back at the President, perhaps highlighting that irrespective of the BBC’s reporting and behaviour, Trump’s conduct in relation to the outcome of the 2020 election was dangerous and tyrannical.  It could have referred to his repeated attacks on journalists and freedom of the press.

Instead it appeared to be grateful, publishing an article revelling in Trump’s thank you message to the newspaper.

Editor Chris Evans wrote to readers today,

“Last night, the US president thanked The Telegraph for our tenacious reporting of a whistleblower’s deep concerns about our national broadcaster, once so loved and trusted by the British people.”

Of course, there is nothing that independent regulation can do about spineless newspaper editors, who revel in the praise of those they ought to be holding to account – however pathetic and undignified that may be.

But for accuracy, and for ensuring that the taxpayer-subsidised newspaper industry is subject to at least basic standards of ethics and accountability, it is time the Government took action on independent press regulation.

Because while every BBC error is pored over and widely publicised by national newspapers, millions of people are misled every day by lies and disinformation in the press – most of which goes unnoticed and unreported upon, by newspapers which hold everyone to account but themselves.

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