BBC-Trump crisis live: Broadcaster apologises to president over speech edit but rejects $1bn compensation demand

The BBC is awaiting a response from Donald Trump after the company apologized for editing a speech by the US president broadcast on Panorama in 2024.

The company said the inclusion of the speech was an “error of judgement” but rejected claims for damages after Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars unless a retraction and apology was published.

A BBC spokesman said President Samir Shah had sent a personal letter to the White House to apologize for the edit, and the company’s lawyers had written to the president’s legal team.

The spokesman added: “Whilst the BBC sincerely regrets the way the video clip has been edited, we strongly disagree that it is the basis for a libel claim.”

The broadcaster said the Panorama episode Trump: Second Chance will not air. again and posted a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.

The statement included the following: “This program has been reviewed following criticism of how President Donald Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 was edited.

“During this sequence we showed quotes from different parts of the conversation.

“However, we acknowledge that our editing inadvertently created the impression that we were constantly showing a single portion of the speech rather than excerpts from different points of the speech, creating the false impression that President Trump was directly calling for violent action.

“The BBC wishes to apologize to President Trump for this error of judgment.”

The spokesman added: “The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary Trump: Second Chance on any BBC platform.”

While Donald Trump said he had an “obligation” to sue the BBC, he described his speech on January 6, 2021 as “very calming” and “beautiful”.

They actually changed my beautiful and very calming speech on January 6th and turned it into a radical speech,” Trump said on Fox News.

They showed me the results of how they butchered him. “It was very dishonest and the president resigned and so did many others.”

Trump made his speech before his supporters stormed the US Capitol. Although he told the crowd to march “peacefully and patriotically”, he later told them to “fight like hell”.

The US president is threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion in his latest round of attacks on mainstream media. The company made mistakes, but now it’s time to fight back, he writes Jon Sopel

Britons have said they will stop paying TV licensing fees if Trump successfully sues the BBC.

One caller to BBC 5 Live said: “I’m sorry if we have to pay Trump a penny but I won’t be paying for my TV licence.”

Others said they did not think the BBC “had any interest in this” other than paying compensation.

The company said Thursday evening that chairman Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House apologizing for media coverage of Trump’s speech. Panorama The episode was aired last October.

But the broadcaster refused to compensate the president, adding: “I absolutely disagree that there is any basis for the libel claim.”

This isn’t the first time President Donald Trump has threatened a media company with legal action over perceived damage to its reputation.

Read below for all the times Trump sued media outlets over threats to his reputation.

The BBC is facing renewed scrutiny after it was revealed that it had been accused of misleading viewers about a speech President Donald Trump gave before the Capitol riots, two years before the Capitol riots. Panorama The episode at the center of the company’s current discussions has been published.

In an episode of BBC News Night broadcast in June 2022, the program reportedly played an edited conversation similar to the one used in the programme. Panorama section. Concerns were raised at the editorial meeting but were rejected. Telegram.

Clips showed the President urging Capitol protesters to “fight like hell.”

The Liberal Democrats have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reject President Donald Trump’s “ridiculous” threat to sue the BBC for $1 billion.

“We are writing to ask you to call President Trump and ask him to withdraw his threat to launch a ridiculous $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC before 10pm tomorrow,” Sir Ed Davey and culture spokesman Anna Sabine said in a statement on Thursday.

They wrote that “it is clear that President Trump is trying to destroy the BBC” and accused it of being “part of his broader attack on the free press”.

They added: “Trump’s attacks on the BBC go far beyond last year’s mistakes. Panorama The broadcast for which the BBC chief rightly apologized.

“President Trump accused BBC journalists of being ‘corrupt’, while the White House press secretary called the BBC ‘100 per cent fake news’ and urged everyone to watch GB News.

“The government must defend Britain, defend the free press, protect license fee payers and defend the impartiality and independence of the BBC.”

They insisted that Trumo should be told that “he has no chance of getting a single penny of license fee payers’ money.”

BBC staff and leading political figures are calling for Sir Robbie Gibb to resign from the BBC board. So who is the Conservative Party’s ‘agent’ in a complex web of political and media interests, asks Katie Rosseinsky: