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Former US President Donald Trump has announced plans to pursue legal action against the BBC over the way his remarks were edited in a Panorama documentary. This announcement came after the BBC issued an apology for the editing but declined to provide any financial compensation. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump stated, “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1bn and $5bn probably sometime next week.”
The BBC acknowledged that the editing of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, inadvertently suggested that he had directly called for violent action, a portrayal they described as mistaken. Despite this admission and the subsequent apology, the broadcaster maintained it would not offer monetary damages. This controversy has had significant repercussions within the corporation, including the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.
Trump expressed to the press that he felt compelled to take legal steps, insisting, “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.” Although he has not discussed the matter with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer directly, Trump indicated that Starmer had shown interest in speaking with him, and that he planned to initiate a call over the weekend. Earlier in the week, Trump’s legal team had threatened the BBC with a $1 billion lawsuit unless the corporation issued a full retraction, apology, and compensation. However, as of yet, no legal case has been formally filed, and the relevant courts in Florida remain closed for the weekend.
The BBC’s apology followed revelations of a second similarly edited clip that aired on Newsnight in 2022, highlighted by the Daily Telegraph. In a corrections statement, the BBC admitted that the Panorama segment, which condensed various parts of Trump’s speech, inadvertently created the false impression of a continuous call for violence. The BBC chair, Samir Shah, also sent a personal letter apologizing for the edit. Nonetheless, the BBC disagrees that there is any viable defamation claim. In correspondence with Trump’s lawyers, the BBC laid out five reasons defending their position: the documentary was not distributed in the US; Trump was not harmed as evidenced by his re-election; the edit was intended only to shorten the lengthy speech without malice; the clip was part of a broader hour-long program that included supportive voices; and finally, political speech and opinions on public matters enjoy strong protections under US defamation laws
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