The BBC issued a formal apology Thursday to President Donald Trump for a misleading edit of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech — but the broadcaster made clear it would not pay him compensation or concede that it had defamed him, despite his threat of a $1 billion lawsuit.
According to The Associated Press, BBC Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House acknowledging that the edit used in a “Panorama” documentary improperly stitched together excerpts of Trump’s speech that were nearly an hour apart.
The edit, the BBC admitted, “unintentionally created the impression” that Trump delivered a single, continuous call to action that included a “direct call for violent action.”
The documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” aired just days before the 2024 presidential election and showed Trump urging his supporters to “fight like hell” while omitting a portion in which he called for a peaceful demonstration. The film was produced by a third-party company and will not be rebroadcast, the BBC said.
“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech,” the broadcaster wrote in a published retraction. It added that the version aired gave viewers a “mistaken impression” of what Trump said that day.
Trump’s legal team previously demanded an apology, a “full and fair” retraction, and compensation for what it characterized as “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.” The BBC’s statement, however, noted that it “refused to pay compensation,” according to its own news report on the dispute.
The fallout has been severe inside the organization. Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned Sunday, saying that the controversy was damaging the BBC and that “the buck stops with me.”
Legal specialists say Trump’s threat of a billion-dollar lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. Deadlines to file in the U.K. have expired, defamation awards there are typically far lower, and the documentary did not air in the U.S., making it difficult to prove American viewers formed negative opinions based on a program they could not see. Experts also note Trump was elected president in 2024, undercutting claims of harm.
Still, Trump has secured significant settlements from American media outlets. Paramount, owner of CBS, paid $16 million in July to settle its lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he said was deceptively edited.
ABC News recently paid $15 million after anchor George Stephanopoulos inaccurately claimed Trump had been found civilly liable for rape — a claim not supported by the jury’s actual finding.
The BBC said Thursday it is also reviewing a Daily Telegraph report alleging that its program “Newsnight” similarly spliced Trump’s Jan. 6 remarks in a 2022 segment.
