BBC 'determined to fight' looming Trump lawsuit over speech edit
Two senior BBC bosses have resigned a week after an internal memo leaked. (Reuters: Anna Gordon)
In short:
The US president says he could sue the British national broadcaster for as much as $US5 billion after it spliced together two parts of his speech from January 6, 2021.
In an email to staff, the BBC's chair Samir Shah says there is "no basis" for the defamation suit.
Two senior executives for the corporation last week resigned over the crisis.
Britain's BBC is "determined to fight" any legal action filed by U.S President Donald Trump, saying on Monday there was no basis for a defamation case over its editing of one of his speeches.
Mr Trump said last week he would likely sue the BBC for as much as $US5 billion ($7.6 billion) after the broadcaster spliced together separate excepts of one of his speeches, creating the impression he was inciting the January 6, 2021 riot.
The British national broadcaster's chair Samir Shah then sent a personal letter to Mr Trump to apologise for the edit, the BBC said, but the broadcaster said it strongly disagreed there was a basis for a defamation claim.
But that has done little to quell Mr Trump's displeasure, with the US president telling reporters on Friday he would sue for anywhere between $US1 billion and $US5 billion.
"I think I have to do that, I mean they've even admitted that they cheated," he said.
BBC director-general Tim Davie resigned amid fallout from the documentary. (AP: Andrew Milligan/PA)
In a further email sent to BBC staff on Monday, local time, Mr Shah said there was a lot of speculation about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
"In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our license fee payers, the British public," he said in the email.
"I want to be very clear with you — our position has not changed.
"There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this."
Broadcaster faces major challenge from saga
The edit to Mr Trump's January 6 speech has caused headaches for the BBC, which has already been struck by a number of high-profile scandals in recent years.
The spliced-together speech was aired in a Panorama documentary which aired before the 2024 US Presidential election, but only came to light in recent weeks.
President Donald Trump says he could sue the UK national broadcaster for up to $US5 billion. (AP: Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The BBC's director-general Tim Davie and news chief executive Deborah Turness both resigned in the aftermath, plunging the broadcaster into one of its biggest crises in decades.
The BBC also issued a personal apology to Mr Trump, vowing not to rebroadcast the Panorama documentary but rejecting the president's claims he had been defamed by it.
It also rejected the US president's demands for financial compensation.
British culture minister Lisa Nandy said on Friday it was right that the BBC had apologised to Mr Trump.
"They've rightly accepted that they didn't meet the highest standards and that's the basis on which the chairman of the board has offered this apology to the President of the United States," she told the UK's Times Radio.
The scandal and subsequent leadership resignations come at a sensitive time for the BBC, which is funded largely by a licence fee paid by any Briton owning a television.
The broadcaster, which has been on air since 1922, is currently navigating the next round of its funding negotiations with the UK government.