DONALD Trump has confirmed he WILL sue the BBC after the broadcaster doctored a speech he delivered for an episode of Panorama
The US President said he plans to sue the corporation for a sum between $1 billion and $5billion in damages.
President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters he will take legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation next week.
“We’ll sue them from $1illion to $5billion, I think I have to do it,” the US President said on board Air Force One.
This comes after the BBC apologised to Trump after doctoring a speech he delivered for an episode of Panorama – as the broadcaster was accused of another misleading edit.
It confirmed the Panorama programme will “not be broadcast again in this form or on any BBC platforms”.
The broadcaster said: “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.
“The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement.
“This programme was not scheduled to be re-broadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.”
A BBC spokesperson added chairman Samir Shah sent a personal letter to The White House to apologise for the editing of the speech in the Panorama programme.
But added: “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.”
BBC Newsnight has also been accused of doctoring footage of the US President’s speech and ignoring concerns raised about it.
The programme is said to have aired a similar edit to that found in the Panorama documentary, The Telegraph reports.
In the Newsnight edit, Trump is presented saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.
“And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we fight. We fight like hell.
“And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
A voiceover from presenter Kirsty Wark followed saying “and fight they did” over a clip of the Capitol riot.
Ex-White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the BBC it had been “spliced together”.
He said: “That line about ‘we fight and fight like hell’ is actually later in the speech and yet your video makes it look like those two things came together.”
Mr Trump previously let rip over the October 2024 Panorama programme that spliced sections of his speech to suggest he directly stoked the 2021 insurrection.
The version broadcast said: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you and we fight.”
Whereas he actually said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
In their excoriating legal letter, Mr Trump’s lawyers said this misrepresentation had caused him to suffer “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”.
They said: “Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide.”
His attorney Alejandro Brito demanded a “full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published”.
The scandal hit BBC director Tim Davie who resigned on Monday night.
This was followed by CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness’ departure.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Davie and Turness’ going must be the start of wholesale change.
“The government need to appoint somebody with a record of coming in and turning companies and their cultures around. Preferably, it would be someone coming in from the private sector who has run a forward-facing business and understands PR.
“This is the BBC’s last chance. If they don’t get this right, there will be vast numbers of people refusing to pay the licence fee.”
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