NEED TO KNOW
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President Donald Trump’s attorney issued a letter to the BBC, demanding an apology for its “Trump: A Second Chance?” program and threatening to file a $1 billion defamation lawsuit
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The broadcaster apologized to the president in a Thursday, Nov. 13 letter
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However, the BBC rejects the claims that its actions were defamatory
The BBC apologized to President Donald Trump for including a misleading edit of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech, but rejects his defamation claims.
The British public broadcaster covered the president’s speech from the day in its current affairs series Panorama, in the episode “Trump: A Second Chance?,” which aired days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The episode included various clips spliced together non-sequentially, creating the impression of Trump, 79, telling his supporters to incite violence, NBC News reported. The episode specifically included a clip of Trump telling supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” However, clips of the president urging supporters to demonstrate peacefully were absent from the program.
Trump’s attorney then issued a letter to the BBC, demanding an apology and threatening to file a $1 billion defamation lawsuit. Additionally, they demanded a “full and fair” retraction of “Trump: A Second Chance?” and alleged “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading or inflammatory statements” about Trump.
On Thursday, Nov. 13, the BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House. “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,” Shah wrote.
Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty
President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.
BBC News Director-General Tim Davie and CEO Deborah Turness resigned. Davie acknowledged the mistake and also expressed support for the BBC defending itself in a statement to staff, according to NPR.
However, the BBC is not conceding to Trump’s defamation claim. “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the letter reads.
Although Trump has reached settlements with U.S. media companies in recent years, it remains unclear whether this suit can be pursued in the U.K. Defamation damages in the U.K. rarely exceed $132,000. The deadline for the defamation case expired over a year ago.
The recent controversy with the BBC comes after Trump and Paramount reached a $16 million settlement in July. The president sued the media company in October 2024 over CBS News’ 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was running against him for president.
That settlement occurred while the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission investigated and threatened to disapprove Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media. The merger was approved weeks after the settlement was announced.
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In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million in charitable contributions to Trump’s presidential library after the news outlet and anchor George Stephanopoulos settled a libel lawsuit. Trump accused the journalist and ABC News of defaming him when Stephanopoulos incorrectly stated that Trump was found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump was actually found liable for sexual abuse, a different offense.
In January 2025, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trump’s 2021 lawsuit regarding a previous suspension on its platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
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