The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the 13th apologized to former U.S. President Trump regarding a documentary segment in its ‘Panorama’ program, which spliced together Trump’s speeches on the day of the 2021 Capitol riot, thus misleading viewers. However, they rejected Trump’s demand for compensation.
According to Xinhua News Agency, a BBC spokesperson said the company’s lawyers have issued a written response to the Trump legal team’s letter received on the 9th, and BBC Board Chairman Samir Shah has separately written to the White House to clearly express to Trump that he and the company are sorry for the editing of Trump’s speech. The BBC will no longer replay the documentary on any of its platforms.
The spokesperson said, “Although the company deeply regrets the editing method of the video clips, we strongly believe there are no grounds for a defamation lawsuit.”
Trump’s legal team sent a letter to the BBC on the 9th, demanding that the broadcaster respond by no later than the 14th, withdraw the documentary, apologize, and provide reasonable compensation for the damage caused to Trump. Otherwise, they would seek $1 billion in damages.
On October 28 last year, about a week before the U.S. presidential election voting, the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ program aired the documentary ‘Trump: The Comeback?’. The broadcaster admitted on the evening of the 13th that its editors had spliced together two segments of Trump’s speech from the day of the Capitol riot that were over 50 minutes apart, “unintentionally” creating the impression of a continuous speech, which in turn led to the false impression that Trump was directly urging his supporters to take violent action.
This incident triggered a huge public controversy. BBC Director General Tim Davie and the head of the news department Deborah Turness announced their resignations on the 9th.