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US President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he ordered supporters to attack the US Capitol, opening an international forum in his battle against media coverage he deems untrue or inaccurate.
Trump has accused a British public broadcaster of defaming him by including parts of Jan’s speech. 6, 2021, including a segment where he tells supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he says “fight like hell.” He left out the part where he called for peaceful protests.
The BBC apologized to Trump, admitted to an error of judgment and admitted that the edit gave the wrong impression that he had made a direct call for an act of violence.
But it said there is no legal basis to sue.
The BBC is funded by a compulsory license fee for all TV viewers, which UK lawyers say would make any payment to the politically-charged Trump.
Facing one of the biggest crises in its 103-year history, the BBC has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
The director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness, have both resigned over accusations of biased reporting, including decisions about the way a documentary was edited for a speech by US President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
Controversy over the clip, aired on the BBC Panorama documentary show just before the 2024 US presidential election, sparked a public relations crisis for the broadcaster, leading to the resignation of two of its most senior executives.
Trump’s lawyers say the BBC caused him serious reputational and financial damage.
The film was scrutinized after a BBC memo was leaked by an external standards adviser who raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation into political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster.
The documentary was not broadcast in the United States.
Trump may have sued the United States because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a closed window Panorama episode.
To overcome the US Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the press, Trump will need to prove not only that the editing was false and defamatory but that the BBC deliberately misled viewers or was negligent.
The broadcaster may argue that the documentary is largely factual and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It may also say that the program did not harm Trump’s reputation.
Other media outlets sided with Trump, including CBS and ABC when Trump sued them following his landslide victory in the November 2024 election.
Trump has filed lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and an Iowa newspaper, all three of which have denied wrongdoing.
The attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 was aimed at preventing Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 US election.
