BBC tells staff they cannot quote cut Trump line

BBC presenters and journalists have been told they cannot quote a line removed from its prestigious annual lecture, in which a Dutch writer accused Donald Trump of being “the most openly corrupt president in American history”.

- Michael Savage Media editor

Rutger Bregman accused the BBC of cowardice after the decision to remove the line from the first of his Reith Lectures, which he was invited to give by the corporation.

The BBC said the decision came after legal advice. It came after Trump threatened to sue the BBC for up to $5bn (£3.8bn) for the way Panorama edited the speech he gave on the day of the Capitol riots in January 2021.

However, it has now emerged that BBC outlets have been told not to repeat Bregman’s corruption allegation against Trump even in its news coverage of the decision to cut the line from the speech.

In an edition of BBC Radio 4’s Media Show that discussed Bregman’s claims of censorship, the presenter Ros Atkins said: “Also for legal reasons, we’re not able to tell you what that line is.”

An earlier article on the BBC News website covering the edit of Bregman’s speech stated: “BBC News is not repeating the line in question on the same legal advice.”