BBC asks US court to throw out Trump’s $10bn lawsuit and avoid ‘chilling effect’ | BBC
The BBC has asked a US court to throw out a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over the way a documentary edited one of his speeches, warning that continuing with the case would have a “chilling effect” on news about the president.
In documents filed in a Florida court in the case, the BBC’s US lawyers argued that the documentary’s reputation was not damaged, given that it aired in the UK a week before Trump’s re-election.
The broadcaster’s lawyers also reiterated that the Panorama documentary Trump: Second Chance was not broadcast in the United States, including Florida, meaning the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.
They also cited other cases to argue that defendants should not have to deal with “expensive but meritless lawsuits” that restrict the ability to cover public figures.
“Moreover, when [the] The BBC’s lawsuit states that the plaintiff is among the most powerful and high-profile people in the world and reports on the BBC’s activities on a daily basis.
“The chilling effect is clear. That’s why federal courts in Florida often reject culpable defamation claims like this at the pleadings stage.”
The company’s lawyers cited a lawsuit Trump recently filed against CNN that was dismissed as “meritless.” The 2022 lawsuit took issue with the network’s use of the phrase “big lie” to refer to the president’s claim that the 2020 election was “stolen.”
The BBC personally apologized to Trump for the 12-second clip in the 2024 documentary, which combined two parts of the speech made on January 6, 2021. The clip suggested Trump telling the crowd: “We’re going to march to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight like hell.”
These words are taken from parts of his speech almost an hour apart. When the edit was revealed at the end of last year, the BBC issued a retraction on the grounds that it “inadvertently” “created the false impression that President Trump was directly calling for violent action”.
However, the BBC said the documentary was not shown in the US or Florida.
“More than a year later, even after he was re-elected with the support of a large majority of Florida voters, the president claimed that the documentary defamed him in Florida, where the defendants never aired it,” his lawsuit says.
Despite the claims of Trump’s lawyers, it was stated that the BBC never broadcast the documentary on BritBox International, a paid streaming service owned by BBC Studios in the USA, or on other sites. BBC.compublisher’s international website.
It was stated that third-party distributors obtained the rights to show the documentary abroad, but none of them released it in the United States. It was stated that the shorter international version of the documentary did not even include the edit of the January 6 speech.
“The Court should dismiss this case with prejudice at the outset,” the BBC’s lawsuit says.
A BBC spokesman said: “We said we would defend the case vigorously. Simply put, the documentary was never broadcast in Florida or the US.
“It was not available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online, or on other streaming platforms, including BritBox and BBC Select. We therefore challenged the Florida court’s jurisdiction and filed a motion to dismiss the president’s claim.”
