United States President Trump has issued a stern warning to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and told reporters on Friday that he may sue the BBC next week for damages ranging from 1 to 5 billion dollars.
The core of this controversy lies in a documentary aired on BBC’s popular program “Panorama” which handles a segment of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, accusing it of “false, defamatory, and provocative” misleading editing.
In the face of the President’s legal team demanding “no less than 1 billion dollars” in compensation, BBC Chairman Samir Shah has sent a personal letter of apology to President Trump, acknowledging the editing was an “error of judgment” and stating that the edit “inadvertently caused confusion” painting an impression that President Trump directly incited violence. However, BBC strongly denies the legal basis for defamation claims and has rejected the compensation demand.
Due to this controversy, BBC Director General Tim Davie and News Director Deborah Turness have both resigned. BBC has also agreed to no longer air the documentary on any platform; currently, the documentary is unavailable for viewing on BBC iPlayer.
The documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” was aired shortly before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The controversial editing technique involved splicing together several distant segments of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, erroneously creating an impression that the President was instructing supporters to “go to the Capitol… fight like hell.”
This is not the fact. Trump’s original statement was: “We’re going to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.”
It wasn’t until about 54 minutes later that he said, “And I’ll be with you. We’re going to fight, we’re going to struggle.”
“We’re going to sue them, amounting to anywhere between 1 to 5 billion dollars, probably sometime next week,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One heading to Florida for the weekend on Friday.
“I feel I have to do that because they even admitted they misled the public. They changed the words that came out of my mouth,” he further noted, stating that without taking action, “you couldn’t stop it from happening to other people again.”
President Trump stated that he has not spoken to UK Prime Minister Starmer on this matter yet but plans to call him over the weekend. He said Starmer has tried to contact him and is “very embarrassed” about the incident.
In response to the strict demands from Trump’s legal team, BBC has presented multiple reasons in a written letter to the President’s legal team explaining why they believe there is an absence of legal grounds for defamation claims.
BBC’s main legal arguments include:
1. BBC did not authorize or distribute the documentary on U.S. channels, and viewing on BBC iPlayer is restricted to audiences within the UK.
2. The documentary did not harm President Trump because “he was soon successfully re-elected.”
3. Under U.S. defamation law, opinions on matters of public concern and political speech are highly protected.
4. BBC states that the editing was not done with malice; its purpose was only to shorten the lengthy speech.
5. BBC points out that this edit was never intended to stand alone. It was only a 12-second part in an hour-long program that also included many voices supporting Trump.
Regarding this incident, UK Culture Minister Lisa Nandy welcomed BBC’s decision to apologize to Trump, believing it is correct for BBC to acknowledge not meeting the highest standards.
UK Prime Minister Starmer, on the other hand, expressed his belief that BBC should remain strong and independent.
In recent years, Trump has filed several lawsuits against media organizations, including legal actions against The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The New York Times.
This incident has also raised questions about the editing standards within BBC, as another program “Newsnight” was exposed in 2022 to have similar editing errors.