The US President threatened to sue the corporation for $1bn after they doctored his speech.
The US President threatened to sue the corporation for $1bn (£760m) (Image: Getty)
The BBC is preparing an apology to Donald Trump ahead of the US President’s Friday deadline after he threatened to sue the corporation for $1bn (£760m). Mr Trump described the state broadcaster as “Fake News” media, which has a “reckless disregard for the truth”. This comes after a Panorama documentary displayed a doctored speech, splicing two separate clips together to make it appear that he had incited the 2021 Capitol Hill Riot.
On Monday, it emerged that the broadcaster had received the demand via a letter and will “respond in due course”, BBC News reports. Mr Trump’s legal team gave the BBC a deadline of 5 pm EST (10 pm in the UK) on Friday, November 14, to comply with his request.
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BBC lawyers are working on a response (Image: Getty)
In a letter sent on Sunday and seen by NBC News, the team added: “President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. The BBC is on notice.”
It is now understood that the BBC is ready to apologise, with its lawyers working on the response, The Telegraph reports.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC to “get its house in order” after the two senior resignations of Tim Davie, the BBC director-general and Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News.
On the same day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt labelled the BBC as a “Leftist propaganda machine”, adding: “Whether they apologise or not is up to them.”
BBC Chair Samir Shah has since apologised for what he called an “error of judgement” over the major editing blunder. Mr Shah wrote in a letter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: “Since the publication of Mr Prescott’s memo, this issue has led to over 500 complaints. These are now being dealt with in the normal way. It has also prompted further reflection by the BBC.
“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
