Donald Trump has announced his intention to sue the BBC over a documentary that edited footage of a speech he delivered before the January 6 riots.
This declaration comes at a turbulent time for the BBC, marked by the resignation of its director general, Tim Davie, amidst rising criticism from right-wing UK media on the network’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict, as well as its portrayal of transgender rights and Donald Trump.
Trump has historically had a contentious relationship with the media, coining the term ‘fake news’ to describe coverage he finds unfavorable.
Previously, Trump has reacted strongly to media portrayals outside of news reporting, notably calling for the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host criticized Trump and his supporters regarding remarks about the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump’s legal representative, Alejandro Brito, issued a letter threatening legal action against the BBC for their editing of Trump’s speech in a Panorama documentary preceding the January 6 riots.
In the letter, the attorney argued that the editing resulted in ‘false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements’.
The documentary, titled Donald Trump: A Second Chance?, aired a week before the 2024 US presidential election.
In the documentary, Trump is depicted saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In reality, he stated: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
The phrase ‘fight like hell’ was part of a later segment in his speech, where Trump mentioned: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Brito claimed in the letter that the BBC ‘intentionally sought to completely mislead its viewers by splicing together three separate parts of President Trump’s speech to supporters on January 6, 2021’.
On November 9, BBC’s director general Tim Davie resigned, followed by the departure of news chief Deborah Turness.
The next day, November 10, BBC chair Samir Shah issued an apology for the way Trump’s speech was edited in the Panorama documentary, referring to it as an ‘error of judgement’.
Shah stated: “Since the publication of Mr Prescott’s memo, this issue has led to over 500 complaints. These are now being dealt with in the normal way. It has also prompted further reflection by the BBC.”
He continued: “The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
A spokesperson for the BBC commented: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
Trump’s legal team has given the BBC a deadline of Friday, November 14, to address the lawsuit.
In the legal suit, Trump’s demands regarding the coverage are outlined.
These demands include a ‘full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump’, along with an apology.
The suit also demands that Trump be ‘appropriately compensated for the harm caused’.
If the BBC fails to meet these demands, the suit indicates that Trump ‘will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages’.