US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for up to $5 billion over an edited video of his January 2021 speech, despite the broadcaster apologising and rejecting his defamation claim.
The dispute has triggered the BBC’s biggest crisis in decades, leading to the resignation of its director general and head of news.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday (14), the Trump said he would “probably” file the lawsuit next week after the BBC admitted that a Panorama documentary had wrongly edited parts of a speech he gave before the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars,” Trump said. “They’ve even admitted that they cheated.”
The BBC apologised last week for giving viewers the impression that Trump had directly urged “violent action” before the Capitol riot.
The documentary, aired ahead of the 2024 US election, stitched together three separate parts of Trump’s speech. His legal team said the edit was “false and defamatory” and caused “reputational and financial harm”.
The broadcaster wrote directly to the White House on Thursday (13). In the letter, BBC chair Samir Shah said he was sorry for what he described as “an error of judgement” in the programme. But the BBC maintained there was no basis for a defamation claim and confirmed it would not pay compensation.
“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the corporation said in a statement.
Trump, however, insists an apology is not enough. In an interview with GB News on Friday, he said: “This was so egregious. If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”
He added that the original speech had been “a beautiful statement”, accusing the BBC of altering his words to create a false impression that he had encouraged violence. “Fake news was a great term, except it’s not strong enough. This is beyond fake, this is corrupt,” he said.
Trump also claimed he planned to raise the matter with British prime minister Keir Starmer over the weekend. “He actually put a call into me. He’s very embarrassed,” Trump told reporters. The Prime Minister has avoided criticising the US president directly, but told MPs this week that he supported a “strong and independent BBC” while stressing that the corporation “must get its house in order”.
The row has opened a fierce debate in the UK about the BBC’s editorial standards and impartiality. The corporation is approaching a politically sensitive moment as it prepares for negotiations on its Royal Charter, which expires in 2027.
The fallout from the Panorama edit triggered the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness earlier this week. Both stepped aside amid mounting criticism of editorial oversight and accusations of bias.
The BBC is also investigating a second instance of editing involving Trump’s speech. The Telegraph reported that another altered clip appeared in a June 2022 edition of Newsnight.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said the apology issued to Trump was “right and necessary”. But former Conservative media minister John Whittingdale said there would be “real anger” if licence fee money were used to pay any damages.
The broadcaster has already ruled out rebroadcasting the Panorama programme and said its editorial processes are under review.
Trump’s legal team initially gave the BBC until Friday to retract the documentary and offer compensation of “no less than $1 billion”. The BBC has stood by its position that the error, while serious, does not meet the threshold for defamation.
(Agencies)
