The BBC, one of the world’s biggest broadcasters, has been plunged into crisis after two top executives quit after a leaked memo suggesting that it had misleadingly edited a speech by President Trump that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

在一份泄露备忘录显示英国广播公司(BBC)误导性剪辑了特朗普总统在1月6日国会大厦骚乱前发表的演讲后，该机构两名高层主管辞职，这家规模居全球前列的广播机构深陷危机。

The departures leave a vacuum of leadership at the organization, while the White House has been publicly celebrating.

此举使得BBC领导层出现真空，白宫方面则公开庆贺。

Here’s what to know.

以下是事件要点梳理。

What was the central criticism against the BBC?

BBC面临的核心指控是什么？

A highly critical letter, written by a former external adviser to the BBC board, Michael Prescott, said that a documentary called “Trump: A Second Chance?,” broadcast before the presidential election last year, at one point spliced together footage from comments that Mr. Trump made about 50 minutes apart. In his speech on Jan. 6 to supporters in Washington as Congress was certifying the results that showed Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won the election, Mr. Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”

BBC编辑标准委员会前外部顾问迈克尔·普雷斯科特写了一封严厉的批评信，指出在去年总统大选前播出的纪录片《特朗普：第二次机会？》中，有一处将特朗普相隔约50分钟发表的讲话内容拼接到了一起。1月6日国会认证拜登胜选结果时，特朗普对华盛顿的支持者发表演讲称：“我们要走向国会大厦，为我们勇敢的参议员和众议员们加油，不过对于其中的一些人我们大概不会加油。"

But the documentary, produced as part of the BBC’s long-running Panorama series, cut that together with a previous sentence in which the president said, “I’ll be there with you,” and with a much later quote from his speech. The edited version suggested that he had said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you … and we fight. We fight like hell.”

该片属于BBC老牌的“广角镜”系列纪录片之一，其中出现的这段话与总统更早之前的一句“我会和你们一起去”以及演讲里较靠后的一段话剪在了一起。剪辑后的版本显得他在说：“我们要走向国会大厦……我会和你们一起去……我们要战斗。拼命战斗。”

The documentary is no longer available to watch on the BBC’s online player. Samir Shah, the BBC’s chairman, said in a letter Monday that complaints about the editing of the clips had been discussed by the standards committee in January and May, and that the points raised in the review had been relayed to the Panorama team.

这部纪录片已从BBC的网络播放平台下架。BBC主席萨米尔·沙阿在周一的信函中证实，编辑标准委员会已于今年1月和5月两次讨论关于影片剪辑的投诉，并将审查意见传达给了“广角镜”团队。

“With hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal action,” he wrote. He added: “We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment.”

“事后来看，本应采取更正式的行动会更好，”他在信中写道，并且还补充说，“我们承认，这段演讲的剪辑方式确实给人造成了直接煽动暴力的观感。BBC就这一专业失察表示歉意。”

BBC News reported on Monday that President Trump had sent a letter to the BBC threatening legal action. It cited the BBC’s saying it had received the letter “and will respond in due course.”

BBC新闻周一报道称，特朗普总统已致函BBC威胁采取法律行动。报道援引BBC的回应表示已收到来信，“将在适当时机作出回复。”

A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s outside legal team said Monday that a letter had been sent to the BBC, claiming that the broadcaster had defamed President Trump and that the intention was to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

特朗普外部法律团队的一名发言人周一表示，他们已向BBC寄出了一封信，声称该媒体诽谤特朗普总统，并意图干预2024年总统选举。

The letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, said Mr. Trump would file a $1 billion lawsuit if the BBC did not formally retract the report, apologize and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”

《纽约时报》获得的该律师函写道，若BBC不正式撤回报道、公开道歉并“就所造成的损害对特朗普总统进行合理赔偿”，特朗普将提起10亿美元索赔诉讼。

What else was in the critical report, and who wrote it?

该批评报告还有哪些内容？执笔者是谁？

The memo’s writer, Mr. Prescott, is a former political editor of The Sunday Times of London, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

这份备忘录的撰写者普雷斯科特曾是伦敦《星期日泰晤士报》的政治版编辑，该报由鲁珀特·默多克旗下的新闻集团所有。

In 2001, Mr. Prescott moved into corporate communications and public relations, where he has spent the past two and a half decades.

2001年，普雷斯科特转行进入企业传播与公共关系领域，并在此行业工作了25年。

In 2022, he was appointed as an independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee. He left that role in June and wrote the memo, which is addressed to board members, after his departure. As well as the documentary about Mr. Trump, Mr. Prescott’s letter criticizes the BBC’s handling of stories about transgender rights; Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza; and its BBC Arabic division, which gave a platform to a journalist who had posted antisemitic comments.

2022年，他被任命为BBC编辑标准委员会的独立外部顾问。今年6月卸任后，他撰写了这份致BBC董事会全体成员的备忘录。除关于特朗普的纪录片外，普雷斯科特的信函还批评了BBC在处理跨性别权利、以色列加沙军事行动等报道上的做法，并指出BBC阿拉伯语频道曾为发表反犹言论的记者提供平台。

Mr. Shah rejected many of Mr. Prescott’s claims in his letter to a House of Commons select committee on Monday. He said the memo was a “personal account” that “does not present a full picture of the discussions, decisions and actions that were taken.” All of the issues raised by Mr. Prescott had been scrutinized in the past by the board and the standards committee, he wrote, and in many cases the BBC had already acted to tackle the problems, including by changing editorial guidance, appointing new people to leadership positions and carrying out formal disciplinary measures.

沙阿在周一致英国下议院特别委员会的信中驳斥了普雷斯科特的多项指控。他说，这份备忘录是一份“个人陈述”，且“未能全面反映相关讨论、决策及已采取的行动”。他写道，普雷斯科特提出的所有问题此前都已经由董事会和标准委员会审查过，而且在许多情况下BBC已经采取措施解决相关问题，包括修改编辑指南、任命新的负责人以及实施正式的纪律处分。

“It is not true to say that concerns have been ignored or action not taken,” Mr. Shah wrote.

“所谓‘担忧遭到忽视或未采取行动’的说法是不符合事实的，”沙阿写道。

Who is Tim Davie, and why did he resign?

蒂姆·戴维是何许人？他为何辞职？

As the BBC’s director general, Mr. Davie has for five years held one of the toughest positions in British public life, ultimately responsible not just for the BBC’s news coverage with a global reach, but also for its vast other output, including drama series and sports, and for the conduct of star performers.

担任BBC总裁五年时间里，戴维执掌的职位堪称英国公共生活领域最为棘手之一——不仅要对这家全球性媒体的新闻报道负最终责任，还需管理涵盖剧集、体育节目等庞大的内容体系，并规范明星主持人的行为准则。

The BBC, or British Broadcasting Corporation, has a unique status in Britain. It is funded primarily from an annual license fee paid by households that watch TV, supplemented by commercial revenue, and it has a mandate to “act in the public interest,” providing “impartial, high-quality” content that informs, educates and entertains.

BBC在英国具有独特地位，其资金主要来源于民众支付的年度电视牌照费，并辅以商业收入，同时肩负着“服务公众利益”的使命，提供“公正、高质量”的内容，以传播信息、提供教育并兼具娱乐性。

That ambitious goal puts its boss firmly in the spotlight. While the corporation is not funded by the government, Parliament does oversee the level of the license fee paid by TV viewers in Britain, and as a result, the BBC has for many years come under political pressure from all sides.

这一宏大使命使其掌门人始终处于聚光灯下。尽管BBC非政府拨款机构，但议会确实监管着英国观众的牌照费标准，因此多年来该机构一直承受着来自各方的政治压力。

蒂姆·戴维今年1月在苏格兰议会接受质询。他担任BBC总裁一职已有五年。

The surprise resignations of Mr. Davie and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, appear to have been catalyzed by the leak to The Daily Telegraph of Mr. Prescott’s memo and by the days of public pressure that followed.

普雷斯科特备忘录被泄漏给了《每日电讯报》并引发了舆论压力，这是戴维与BBC新闻部门首席执行官黛博拉·特内斯的突然辞职的直接诱因。

In Mr. Davie’s resignation statement on Sunday, he said: “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision. Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

戴维在上周日的辞职声明中表示：“尽管并非唯一原因，但当前围绕BBC新闻的争议无疑促成了我的决定。整体而言BBC表现良好，但确实存在一些失误，作为总裁我必须承担最终责任。”

Ms. Turness said, “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.” But she added, “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

特尼斯表示：“围绕特朗普总统那期“广角镜”的持续争议已经发展到正在损害BBC——这个我深爱的机构——的程度。”但她补充说：“尽管存在失误，但我必须明确指出，最近有关BBC新闻存在制度性偏见的指控是不正确的。”

BBC新闻部门负责人黛博拉·特尼斯也于周日辞职。

What happens next?

接下来会发生什么？

Mr. Davie’s successor will be appointed by the BBC board, which is led by its chairman, Mr. Shah, and consists of 10 nonexecutive members (including Mr. Shah) and four executive members.

戴维的继任者将由BBC董事会任命。该董事会由主席沙阿领导，有10名非执行董事（其中包括沙阿本人）及4名执行董事。

Mr. Davie, announcing his departure, said that he was “working through exact timings with the board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.” The aim, he added, was to allow his successor “the best conditions and space” to help shape a new royal charter, the document that lays out the governance and regulatory rules for the BBC, and another agreement on the corporation’s funding. The current arrangements expire at the end of 2027.

戴维在宣布离职时表示，他“正与董事会商定具体时间安排，以确保在未来数月内有序完成工作交接”。他补充说，此举旨在让继任者能在“最佳条件与空间下”参与制定新的皇家特许状——这份文件将确立BBC的管理与监管规则——以及新的资金安排协议。现行安排将于2027年底到期。