LONDON: Great Britain BBC apologized to Donald Trump on Thursday for altering a speech to make it appear he advocated violence, seeking to ward off the US president’s threat of legal action, but the network rejected the basis for a defamation claim.
In a press release, the BBC said its president, Samir Shah, sent a personal letter to the White House making it clear to Trump that he and the company were “sorry” for the edit, adding that the channel had no plans to rebroadcast the Panorama documentary on any of its platforms.
“While the BBC “We sincerely regret the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation claim,” said the BBC said.
The leak of internal accusations of bias in BBCnotably in how he edited a 2021 Trump speech on the day his supporters invaded the Capitol, forced his two top leaders to resign and Trump to threaten a billion-dollar lawsuit.
This puts the BBC at the risk of having to use the money paid by its viewers to compensate the American president for an error of his own making, thus giving more ammunition to critics at a time when a growing number of them are canceling the payment of their annual license.
Trump’s lawyers told the BBC to withdraw the Panorama program, apologize to the President and adequately compensate him for the harm caused, or face a lawsuit seeking damages of at least $1 billion.
