After Donald Trump accused the BBC of using a misleading montage to portray him as an instigator of violence before the attack on the Capitol, the British public broadcaster pulled the controversial program and issued an official apology. The BBC, however, denies the defamation claims and rejects the claim for damages
The British public service BBC apologized to the American president to Donald Trump over a Panorama documentary that spliced together parts of his speech before the 2021 attack on the Capitol, but rejected his claim for damages.
Trump said on Monday that he has an obligation to sue the British BBC due to the misrepresentation of his comments in the Panorama documentary show.
He also threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion in damages unless it withdrew the controversial documentary, apologized immediately and offered adequate compensation by Friday 14 November at 10pm UK time.
As they stated from the BBC, due to the editing of the show, they got the wrong impression that Trump directly called for violent action, and they also added that they will no longer show that program.
Trump said the BBC’s Panorama editing made his “beautiful and very calming speech sound radical”, calling it “unbelievable and very dishonest”.
In light of the violence that broke out on Capitol Hill in January 2021, Trump faced accusations of trying to change the results of the 2020 election, but those attempts were suspended after he defeated Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
One of the consequences of the scandal with the Panorama program was the resignation of the director general of the BBC, Tim Davey, and the director of the news program, Deborah Tarnes.
“BBC President Samir Shah personally sent a letter to the White House in which he made it clear to US President Trump that he and the corporation deeply regret the editing of the speech from January 6, 2021, which was shown in the program,” said the spokesperson of the public service.
It added that while the BBC sincerely regrets the way the video clip was edited, it does not agree that there is any basis for defamation claims.
Earlier, the Daily Telegraph reported that the BBC misled viewers two years ago with another edit of the same Trump speech from 2021. Responding to the Telegraph’s writing, a BBC spokesman replied that the corporation adheres to the highest standards of program editing, and that it would investigate the allegations.
The spokesman for Trump’s legal team said on this occasion that it is now clear that there is a pattern of slandering the US president at the BBC.
Source: Tanjug, Vreme
