The BBC has apologized to Donald Trump for editing a documentary out of seconds of his speech on the day of the Capitol attack, following the threat of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. However, British public television has defended itself, saying there is “no basis” to pay compensation to the US president for defamation.
President Donald Trump’s lawyers have given British public broadcaster an ultimatum to remove the episode from its program by Friday this week. panorama The show is no longer available on any platform, even in the UK, the only place it was broadcast in October 2024, and has apologized, albeit generally to viewers, something the BBC president has already done, offering compensation for the “damages” to Mr Trump. The lawyer suggested that Trump would seek $1 billion (more than 850 million euros) in the lawsuit, although there is little chance of success in the United States, where press freedom is strongly protected by law.
The BBC has a history of settling and paying compensation out of court to avoid public litigation, but defended its initial response to the US president saying it should not pay compensation. “While the BBC deeply regrets the way the video portion was edited, we do not agree that there is any basis for a defamation claim,” a BBC spokesperson said on Thursday.
The spokesperson also confirmed that Sameer Shah, president of British Public Broadcasting, had sent a personal letter to Trump a few days earlier apologizing for what Trump described as an “error in judgment.” Additionally, the BBC says it has “no plans to rebroadcast” the documentary on any platform. documentary titled Donald Trump: “A second chance?” It was not broadcast in the United States and was unavailable for several days on BBC platforms in the United Kingdom.
two sentences
Controversy over the program, which aired last October just days before the US presidential election, erupted in November this year following newspaper reports. telegraph paper It has published a months-old letter from Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s standards committee who resigned in June after three years in the role.
In his letter, Mr Prescott complained of perceived bias in favor of Kamala Harris, transgender rights, Hamas or racial equality, citing specific examples of stories that were often retracted or amended in accordance with BBC regulations. About the program panoramaMr Prescott claimed that the BBC created a “manipulated” version of Trump’s speech by placing two separate phrases – a call to “march” on Parliament House and “fight to the end” – consecutively within the speech, without clearly emphasizing that these were two moments within the speech. But in his complaint, Mr. Prescott improperly edited the original speech and omitted several combative phrases that Mr. Trump uttered after his first speech.
On Thursday, the BBC also posted a statement on the show’s website, saying the hour-long documentary included excerpts from Trump’s speeches and had been reconsidered following criticism from the US president. “We acknowledge that our editing unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single, continuous portion of the speech, rather than excerpts from various parts of the speech, and that it gave the false impression that President Trump was directly calling for violence,” the memo said, also apologizing to President Trump for the “error in judgment.”
Trump’s speech in question has become the subject of political and judicial investigations in the United States. In their final 2022 report, the Congressional Investigations Committee accused Trump of storming the Capitol as part of an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden.
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