US president claims broadcaster ‘defrauded the public’ in Panorama film
US president Donald Trump has said he has “an obligation” to sue the BBC following the editing of his speech in the Panorama film at the centre of a crisis that has engulfed the broadcaster.
Trump: A Second Chance? aired in October 2024 and was a key factor in the resignation of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness after Michael Prescott’s leaked dossier revealed it featured an edited version of the US president’s 6 January 2021 speech.
The doc is also the focus of Trump’s $1bn (£760m) lawsuit against the BBC, which accuses the broadcaster of making “false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements” about the US president.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he would proceed with the action against the BBC “because they defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it”.
On the threatened legal action, Trump added: “Well I think I have an obligation to do it, because you can’t get people – you can’t allow people to do that.”
The BBC chair Samir Shah has acknowledged errors were made in the editing of programme, which spliced together parts of Trump’s speech that were more than 50 minutes apart.
Trump told Fox News that he believed the BBC had “butchered” his speech, adding: “They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.
“And they actually changed it, what they did was rather incredible.”
Trump added: ”It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of other people quit.”
The BBC confirmed receipt of the letter from Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito on Monday, when the Fox News interview with the US president was filmed, prior to its broadcast on Tuesday evening.
The broadcaster has said it will respond to the letter “in due course”, with Brito setting a deadline of Friday 10pm.
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