US President Donald Trump is planning to push ahead with the lawsuit against the BBC over the editing of his January 2021 speech on the Panorama program, despite the public apology and resignation of the BBC's boss and its head of news.
Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening that he is planning to pursue legal action against the BBC: “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1bn and $5bn, probably sometime next week.”
"We have to do it, they've even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn't have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth," he said.
In the edited speech, Trump appears to be calling for violence, inciting the January 6th riot: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."
However, the memo leaked to The Daily Telegraph says that the speech was edited – and its parts were actually 50 minutes apart.
In the original speech in Washington, DC on January 6th, 2021, Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."
The memo was reportedly written by BBC’s former adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, Michael Prescott, who also addressed concerns over what he viewed as a failure to address bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
In the aftermath of the events, both the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned.
The BBC published a correction on Thursday evening, acknowledging that the edit “gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” and stopped its broadcasting.
Trump’s lawyers gave the BBC a deadline to issue a retraction, an apology, and agree to pay compensation by Friday. The company has apologized to Trump, but refused to compensate him – now, the US president is planning a costly lawsuit.
However, winning the case might be tricky. Trump will have to prove reputational damage, as well as that the BBC had malicious intent rather than merely making an error of judgment. The fact that Trump went on to be re-elected as US president and remains a highly prominent political and business figure could make it hard to argue that the 2021 speech edit had a significant effect on his public image.
According to NBC News, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had asked to speak to Trump, and the call is expected to happen over the weekend.
“The BBC must uphold the highest standards, be accountable and correct errors quickly,” Starmer told the House of Commons. “But I will always stand up for a strong, independent BBC.”
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