President Trump threatens to sue BBC for $1 billion over editing of documentary speech

However, responding to a letter from the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Mr Shah said it was “absolutely untrue” that the memo revealed problems that the BBC had “tried to hide”, and that it was also not accurate to suggest that the broadcaster had not taken steps to address the concerns raised in the text.

President Trump’s letter, received by the BBC on Sunday, asks for an apology and for the broadcaster to make “appropriate compensation” to the president.

The document accuses the BBC of making “false, defamatory, derogatory, misleading and inflammatory statements” about him.

Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, also sued the network for defamation under Florida law.

Mr Shah said in a letter to a parliamentary committee that the BBC had received more than 500 complaints since the memo was published.

According to him, this edition panorama The issue was discussed by the BBC’s internal Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in January and May this year as part of a wider review of the BBC’s US election coverage.

He added that Prescott and some committee members had already raised concerns about the incident at the time.

Mr Shah also said: “I have heard from BBC News that the purpose of edited excerpts is to convey the message of the speech.” panorama “I was able to better understand how he was received by President Trump’s supporters and what was going on at the time.”

He said the matter was not pursued further “because the program did not provoke a significant public reaction and was already aired before the US election.”

He added: “In hindsight, it may have been better to have taken more formal action.”

“We will walk to the Capitol and support our brave senators and members of Congress,” President Trump said in a speech on January 6, 2021.

In the program panoramahe was shown saying, “We’ll walk to the Capitol…and I’ll be there with you. And we’ll fight. We’ll fight as hard as we can.”

The two sections that were originally combined were more than 50 minutes apart.

Mr Davey said on Sunday that the “current controversy” surrounding the station was not the sole reason for his decision to resign, but “naturally it played a role”.

“Overall, the BBC is delivering on its mission well, but some mistakes have been made and, as director-general, I must take ultimate responsibility.”

Turness, who has overseen news and current affairs programming since 2022, spoke publicly on Monday (October 11) for the first time since announcing his resignation, saying the station was “systemically unbiased.”

“Mistakes happen, but BBC journalists are hard-working people who strive for impartiality,” he told reporters outside the BBC’s headquarters in London.

The Prime Minister’s press secretary, Keir Starmer, said he did not believe the BBC was “institutionally biased”. He also denied that the bureau is “corrupt” (a term President Trump has used to describe some of the bureau’s journalists).

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said there were “serious questions that need to be answered for a long time” within the BBC and said the episodes in the documentary were “real issues”.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Trump wanted to “crash the BBC and take our money” and accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of “encouraging him”.

Meanwhile, Mr Farage said he had spoken to President Trump on Friday, reporting at a press conference in London: “He said to me, ‘Is this the way you treat your best ally?'”

Mr Prescott had also expressed concern about the lack of action to address a “systemic problem” of bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the war between Israel and Gaza.

He also raised criticism of the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, suggesting it was being “censored” by LGBT reporters pushing a pro-trans agenda.

Mr Shah’s letter noted that these issues, including concerns about BBC Arabic, had been discussed by the Editorial Standards Committee.

The newspaper said it had investigated coverage of topics related to sex and gender identity and concluded that “much of the content met the BBC’s standards of fairness and accuracy”.

Shah said the commission “recognizes that the BBC sometimes makes mistakes” and takes action where necessary, including taking disciplinary action, updating guidelines and publishing corrections.

“It is possible that Mr. Prescott decided that these individual actions were not sufficient.

That’s his opinion and, of course, he has the right to form it. However, it is not true that concerns were ignored or that no action was taken. ”

In an interview with BBC culture editor Katie Lazar, Mr Shah claimed it was “absolutely not true” that the BBC had done nothing to address the problem, citing measures taken by both the BBC’s Arabic language service and long-form journalism division.

He also said the various issues raised by Mr Prescott, including “certain errors and structural issues,” were being taken seriously, adding that action could and had been taken in both cases, but rejected the idea that there was any systemic bias.

U.S. presidents have a long history of suing or threatening to sue news organizations, but the results have been different.

CBS News, the BBC’s North American partner, and its parent company Paramount reached a $16 million settlement in July following a lawsuit brought by President Trump for misleadingly editing an interview with then-Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.

The New York Times, CNN and the Des Moines Register are also facing lawsuits filed by Trump.