The outgoing boss of the BBC said he was "very proud" of the broadcaster's journalism, two days after he quit following accusations of bias and the threat of legal action from US President Donald Trump.
"I'm very, very proud of our journalists in this building. They're doing work I think is incredibly important," Tim Davie said on Tuesday, the first time he has spoken publicly since announcing his resignation on Sunday.
"They're doing a wonderful job," he added.
The publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation's head of news also quit on Sunday, plunging it into its biggest crisis in decades and dominating the front of Britain's newspapers on Tuesday.
Davie, who has been director general since 2020, also tried to calm worries over the future of the broadcaster.
"The BBC is going to be thriving, and I support everyone on the team," he said.
US President Donald Trump threatened legal action against the BBC on Monday for its editing of a speech he made in 2021 on the day his supporters overran the Capitol, which the British broadcaster admitted on Monday was an "error of judgement".