BBC says sorry but rejects Trump's demand for $1bn

The BBC has apologised to Donald Trump over the editing of a speech in a documentary after the US president threatened a $1bn lawsuit.

- ATHENA STAVROU

The corporation said yesterday evening that chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House to apologise for how a Mr Trump’s speech appeared in a Panorama episode aired in October 2024.

However, the broadcaster has refused to pay the president compensation, adding that it: “Strongly disagrees there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

Mr Trump has threatened to sue the BBC over its editing of the speech, which made it appear as if he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. His lawyers had written to the corporation earlier this week demanding a retraction and compensation by today.

In a retraction published by the BBC, it said the episode, Trump: A Second Chance? “will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

The retraction said: “This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump’s 6th January 2021 speech was edited.

“During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech.