BBC apologises to Trump over speech edit but rejects defamation claim
The documentary, which aired on BBC’s “Panorama” news program just before the 2024 US presidential election, brought together three parts of the speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021, as his supporters stormed the Capitol. The editing created the impression that he was calling for violence.
“Whilst the BBC sincerely regrets the way the video clip has been edited, we strongly disagree that there is a basis for a claim of defamation,” the broadcaster said in a statement. he said.
The US president’s lawyers on Sunday threatened the BBC with a lawsuit for up to $1 billion unless it withdraws the documentary, apologized to the president and compensated him for “financial and reputational damage”.
The BBC has argued that Trump’s defamation lawsuit is without merit, signaling that it believes Trump’s claim for financial compensation is equally untenable. However, the broadcaster did not directly meet Trump’s financial request.
The BBC said in a statement that on Thursday President Samir Shah “sent a personal letter to the White House making it clear that he and the company were sorry for the arrangement.” Earlier in the week, Shah apologized to the British parliament’s oversight committee, saying the regulation was “an error of judgment”. In a statement on Thursday, the BBC added that it had no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any platform. Earlier on Thursday, the BBC said it was investigating new allegations in The Telegraph newspaper about the editing of the same conversation by one of its programmes, “Newsnight”. The BBC is plunged into its biggest crisis in decades after two senior executives resigned over allegations of bias, including the editing of Trump’s speech. The allegations emerged due to a leaked report by the BBC standards officer.
The BBC, founded in 1922 and financed largely by the license fee paid by TV-watching Britons, has no permanent leader as the government weighs how it should be funded in the future.
It is a vital tool of Britain’s “soft power” globally, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday he believed in a “strong and independent” BBC.
