The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has sent a personal apology to United States President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his documentary.
The BBC, however, said there was no legal basis for Trump to sue the public broadcaster over the documentary his lawyers called defamatory.
The documentary, which aired on the BBC’s “Panorama” news programme just before the U.S. presidential election in 2024, spliced together three parts of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol.
The edit created the impression the president had called for violence.
Trump threatens BBC with $1bn lawsuit over error in speech edit
“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,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
Trump’s lawyers threatened on Sunday to sue the BBC for damages of up to $1 billion unless it withdrew the documentary, apologised to the president ,and compensated him for “financial and reputational harm.”
In its statement, the BBC said Chair Samir Shah on Thursday “sent a personal letter to the White House making clear that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit.”
Shah earlier in the week apologised to a British parliamentary oversight committee and said the edit was “an error of judgement.”
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