Donald Trump is contemplating legal action against the BBC following the editing of one of his speeches in a Panorama documentary. He has outlined three specific demands.
The former President’s warning to the British Broadcasting Corporation came after the discovery that his speech from the events preceding the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots had been altered.
The documentary, titled Trump: A Second Chance?, aired on the BBC shortly before the previous year’s presidential election and seemed to present Trump as inciting the attacks through edited clips.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” Trump was depicted as saying in the documentary.
However, the full quote from the Republican leader was: “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 extracted from another part of the speech where Trump talked about what he considered ‘corrupt’ elections in the US.
Following a report by the Telegraph on the editing, BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness announced their resignations.
In a letter from legal counsel Alejandro Brito, the network was criticized for broadcasting ‘false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements’ about Trump, with three demands made for rectification.
The demands outlined in the letter include:
• A ‘full and fair retraction’ of Trump: A Second Chance?
• An immediate apology
• Appropriate compensation for Trump
Trump has given the BBC a deadline of Friday (November 14) to address these demands.
“Failure to comply will leave President Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to recover damages for the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that the BBC has caused him to suffer, with all rights and remedies being expressly reserved by President Trump,” Brito stated in a letter to BBC executives.
A BBC spokesperson commented: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
On Tuesday (November 11), speaking outside the BBC headquarters in London, Turness refuted Trump’s allegations that the BBC is ‘institutionally biased’.
“I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists,” she stated.
“I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.”