Trump threatens BBC with $1bn lawsuit
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn for the editing of a speech by its Panorama programme.
The Corporation has been given a deadline of Friday 14 November to make a “full and fair retratction” of the documetary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’.
BBC chair Samir Shah has apologised for an “error of judgment”, after the Corporation’s director general and chief executive of news quit amid allegations of bias.
In a letter to the culture select committee, he emphasised the “sacred role” of the BBC to “retain the trust and confidence of the public”.
Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resigned after The Telegraph published a leaked BBC memo which revealed that its Panorama programme had spliced together two parts of a Donald Trump speech which appeared to show the US President inciting the 2021 Capitol Hill riots.
The BBC chairman has said that he has had contact from Trump’s team, and he is weighing up a personal apology to the US President. As for whether Trump is considering litigation, Shah said: “I don’t know that yet.”
Shah wrote that “the issue has led to over 500 complaints”.
“These are now being dealt with in the normal way. It has also prompted further reflection by the BBC.”
“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
Yet another crisis for the BBC
The unprecedented double-resignation has opened up major questions about the future of the BBC, with the culture committee of MPs saying that Shah has “serious questions to answer” about Panorama’s editing of the Trump speech.
On Monday morning, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said that Keir Starmer does not believe that the BBC is “institutionally biased” and denied that the Corporation is “corrupt” – an accusation previously leveled by Trump at some of its journalists.
Lisa Nandy thanked Tim Davie overnight for “his service to public broadcasting over many years”.
The culture secretary hailed the BBC as “one of our most important national institutions” and said that “the need for trusted news and high quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life”.
Kemi Badenoch said in a post on X that “it’s right that Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have finally taken responsibility and resigned from the BBC”.
“But let’s be honest, this has been a catalogue of serious failures that runs far deeper.”
The Conservative leader called for “genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom” and insisted that “it should not expect the public to keep funding it through a compulsory licence fee unless it can finally demonstrate true impartiality”.