BBC says its chair sent a personal apology to the White House, calling the documentary edit an error
\n London
\nThe British Broadcasting Corporation sent a personal apology to US President Donald Trump on Thursday but said there was no legal basis for him to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary his lawyers called defamatory.
\nThe documentary, which aired on the BBC\u2019s \u201cPanorama\u201d news programme just before the US presidential election in 2024, spliced together three parts of Trump\u2019s speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol. The edit created the impression he had called for violence.
\n\u201cWhile the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,\u201d the broadcaster said in a statement.
\nLawyers for the US president 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 \u201cfinancial and reputational harm.\u201d
\nApologies from chair, no plans to rebroadcast
\nBy asserting that Trump\u2019s defamation case lacks merit, the BBC effectively signaled that it believes his claim for financial damages is equally untenable. But the broadcaster did not directly address Trump\u2019s financial demand.
\nIn its statement, the BBC said Chair Samir Shah on Thursday \u201csent a personal letter to the White House making clear that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit.\u201d Shah earlier in the week apologised to a British parliamentary oversight committee and said the edit was \u201can error of judgement.\u201d
\nBritish culture minister Lisa Nandy said on Friday it was right that the BBC had apologised to Trump.
\n\u201cThey\u2019ve rightly accepted that they didn\u2019t meet the highest standards and that\u2019s the basis on which the chairman of the board has offered this apology to the President of the United States,\u201d she told Times Radio.
\nIn its statement on Thursday, the BBC added that it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
\nEarlier on Thursday, the BBC said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph newspaper, over the editing by another of its programmes, \u201cNewsnight,\u201d of the same speech.
\nThe BBC has been thrown into its biggest crisis in decades after two senior executives resigned amid allegations of bias, including about the edit of Trump\u2019s speech. The claims came to light because of a leaked report by a BBC standards official.
\nFounded in 1922 and funded largely by a licence fee paid by TV-watching Britons, the BBC is without a permanent leader as the government weighs how it should be funded in the future.
\nIt is a vital instrument of Britain\u2019s \u201csoft power\u201d globally. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he believed in a \u201cstrong and independent\u201d BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC says its chair sent a personal apology to the White House, calling the documentary edit an error London The British Broadcasting Corporation sent a personal apology to US President Donald Trump on Thursday but said there was no legal basis for him to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary his lawyers called defamatory. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-514599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n