BBC apologises to Donald Trump but disagrees on defamation claim

The BBC issued a public apologia to US chairperson Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on 6 January 2021, but said it “strongly disagreed there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

Over the last few days, the BBC has been embroiled in a major crisis as its director general stepped down, its head of news quit, questions were raised over the veracity of its journalism, and Trump announced that he is considering a billion-dollar lawsuit.

Pressure on the broadcaster has been growing since the right-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper published parts of a dossier compiled by the BBC's adviser on standards and guidelines on Nov. 3.

As well as criticising the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raising concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service, the dossier said that an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series “Panorama" — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — broadcast days before the 2024 U.S. Presidential election was misleading.

Specifically, it showed how the third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 6 January 2021 speech into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

By doing so, it made it look like Trump was giving the green light to his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

Since then, there has been an outcry. The broadcaster, which is funded by an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all U.K. Households that watch live TV or any BBC content, was accused of bias against Trump, symptomatic of what they say is an inherent liberal bias within the organisation.

For days, the BBC said very little, saying it did not report to leaked reports. Many thought that was a misjudgement as it allowed the narrative around the edit to be led by its opponents.

By Nov. 9, the pressure on the BBC was becoming increasingly acute, prompting its top executive, Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness to resign over what the broadcaster called an “error of judgment.”

It was also revealed that Trump was demanding a retraction, apology and compensation over the sequence. “I guess I have to,” Trump said when asked about whether he would go through with his legal threat. “Because I think they defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it.”

Trump had set a deadline of Friday, Nov. 14 for the BBC to respond to his challenge.

While the BBC said earlier in the week that the edited portion in the program was an “error of judgment," it did not apologise to Trump directly until Thursday evening.

In a statement, it said its chair, Samir Shah, had personally sent a letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech.

While the BBC statement doesn’t respond to Trump’s demand that he be compensated for “overwhelming financial and reputational harm,” the headline on its news story about the apology said it refused to pay compensation.

The U.S. President has yet to respond to the BBC's apology and its rejection of of his demands for compensation.

Legal experts have said that Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the U.K. Or the U.S. They said that the BBC could show that Trump wasn’t harmed because he was ultimately elected president in 2024.

While many legal experts have dismissed the president’s claims against the media as having little merit, he has won some lucrative settlements against U.S. Media companies and he could try to leverage the BBC mistake for a payout, potentially to a charity of his choice.

However this latest crisis pans out in the days and weeks ahead, the heat will remain on the BBC, especially in its newsrooms where any mistake, or seeming bias, will no doubt be picked up opponents.

As a public broadcaster, the BBC has to be impartial in the way it covers news events. It's a fine balancing act that often gets the BBC into trouble. Some think it leans too much to the right, while others think it goes the other way. Whatever the truth of the matter, many think that the BBC is often cowed in its coverage, particularly on domestic political matters.

Not only does it need to find a new director-general and head of news, it has to negotiate its future with the government.

The left-of-center Labour government, which is considered to one of the most pro-BBC political parties in the U.K., will soon start the once-a-decade process of reviewing the BBC’s governing charter, which expires at the end of 2027.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the government would ensure the BBC is “sustainably funded (and) commands the public’s trust,” but did not say whether the license fee might be scaled back or scrapped.

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