Britain’s BBC apologises to Trump over Panorama speech edit, rejects defamation claim
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Britain's BBC apologised to US President Donald Trump over its editing of his speech, which created the impression that he had called for violence.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
- The BBC apologised to Donald Trump for editing his 2021 speech in a Panorama programme, after Trump threatened a $1 billion lawsuit.
- BBC chair Samir Shah sent a letter of apology to the White House. The BBC stated that, "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 controversy and potential lawsuit risk the BBC having to use viewer fees for compensation, increasing pressure amid licence fee cancellations.
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LONDON – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) sent a personal apology to US President Donald Trump on Nov 13 but said there was no legal basis for him to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary that his lawyers called defamatory.
The documentary, which aired on the BBC’s Panorama news programme just before the US presidential election in 2024, spliced together three parts of Mr Trump’s speech on Jan 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol.
The edit created the impression that he had called for violence.
“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 broadcaster said in a statement.
Lawyers for the US President threatened on Nov 9 to sue the BBC for damages of up to US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion)
By asserting that Mr Trump’s defamation case lacks merit, the BBC effectively signalled that it believes his claim for financial damages is equally untenable.
But the broadcaster did not directly address Mr Trump’s financial demand.
In its statement, the BBC said chairman Samir Shah on Nov 13 “sent a personal letter to the White House making clear that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit”.
Mr Shah earlier in the week apologised to a British parliamentary oversight committee and said the edit was “an error of judgment”.
British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy said on Nov 14 it was right that the BBC had apologised to Mr Trump.
“They’ve rightly accepted that they didn’t meet the highest standards and that’s the basis on which the chairman of the board has offered this apology to the President of the United States,” she told Times Radio.
In the Nov 13 statement, the BBC added that it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
Earlier on Nov 13, the BBC said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph newspaper, over the editing by another of its programmes, Newsnight, of the same speech.
The BBC has been thrown into its biggest crisis in decades after two senior executives resigned
The claims came to light because of a leaked report by a BBC standards official.
Founded in 1922 and funded largely by a licence fee paid by TV-watching Britons, the BBC is without a permanent leader as the government weighs how it should be funded in the future.
It is a vital instrument of Britain’s “soft power” globally, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Nov 12 he believed in a “strong and independent” BBC. REUTERS
