- November 14, 2025
BBC Apologises To Donald Trump But Says His Defamation Lawsuit Has No Basis
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BBC apologized to US President Donald Trump for a misleading edit of his Jan. 6, 2021 speech but disagreed with the basis for a defamation lawsuit.
The broadcaster acknowledged errors in a programme mentioning Trump but argues his defamation claim does not meet legal standards. (IMAGE: AFP)
The chair of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Samir Shah, on Thursday said he had sent a personal letter to the White House in which he and the UK-based broadcaster apologised to US President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his January 6, 2021, speech.
However, the BBC maintained that it strongly disagreed that there was any basis for a defamation lawsuit.
“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, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” the BBC wrote in a retraction.
Trump’s lawyer had earlier sent the broadcaster a letter demanding an apology and threatening a $1 billion lawsuit.
The BBC also said there were no plans to re-broadcast the documentary that had spliced together parts of Trump’s speech delivered nearly an hour apart.
Taking responsibility for the mistake, BBC director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday, saying the scandal was damaging the broadcaster and that “as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me”.
The dispute began after an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme “Panorama”, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, aired just days before the 2024 US presidential election.
The third-party production company behind the film had stitched together three quotes from two different parts of Trump’s 2021 speech—delivered almost an hour apart—creating the impression of a single line in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.
Meanwhile, the broadcaster said Thursday it was investigating a possible second instance in which a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in a misleading way.
On Thursday The Telegraph said the BBC also aired another report, in June, 2022 on its “Newsnight” programme, in which phrases spoken at different points in a speech by Trump from January 6, 2021 — the day of the riots — were edited together to make it appear as if the outgoing president was urging his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se…Read More
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se… Read More
London, United Kingdom (UK)
November 14, 2025, 02:54 IST
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