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The BBC has issued an apology to U.S. President Donald Trump after he claimed he had an “obligation” to sue the broadcaster over the editing of his speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump had demanded a full retraction, an immediate apology, and compensation, alleging that the programme made it appear as though he encouraged violence ahead of the January 6 Capitol riot.
The broadcaster was given until tomorrow to respond to the President’s $1 billion legal threat, following criticism that the programme misled viewers.
In a statement on Friday, the BBC described the edit as an “error of judgment” and confirmed that the episode would “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.”
However, the corporation added 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 episode, Trump: A Second Chance?, has been removed from the BBC’s website, and a retraction was published on Thursday evening. It stated:
“This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump’s 6th January 2021 speech was edited. During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech. However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”
Addressing the issue earlier this week, Trump said: “I guess I have to [sue]. Why not? They defrauded the public, and they’ve admitted it… They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful, very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.”
Referring to the resignation of director-general Tim Davie amid the backlash, Trump added: “They showed me the results of how they butchered it up. It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of other people quit.”
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said he would be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars” if the BBC failed to act.
When asked about Trump’s legal threats, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the BBC as a “Leftist propaganda machine.” She said it was “unfortunate” that the corporation is funded by British taxpayers and added that the legal action is expected to proceed.
BBC chairman Samir Shah also apologised for the “error of judgment” in the edit, which first aired in October last year, after the controversy led to the resignations of Davie and Deborah Turness, the corporation’s chief executive of news.
