US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to the BBC threatening to sue the UK-based public broadcaster for $1 billion (€865 million).
His lawyers said the broadcaster must withdraw the controversial documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit worth not less than $1 billion.
The letter follows the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and news chief executive Deborah Turnas on Sunday over claims that a documentary broadcast by the flagship Panorama program had misled viewers.
The program reportedly combined two different excerpts from a speech by Trump, creating the impression that he was inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.
Trump says BBC has defamed him
A representative for Trump’s legal team confirmed that a letter was sent to the BBC on Sunday, accusing the outlet of “defaming” Trump, but did not provide further details.
“President Trump will continue to hold those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news accountable,” the representative said.
According to BBC News, the letter sets a deadline of 14 November for a “full and fair return” of the Panorama documentary.
“We will review the letter and respond directly in due course,” the BBC said in a statement on Monday.
Separately, BBC chairman Samir Shah on Monday said “Trump: A Second Chance?” Apologized for “error of judgment” in titled broadcast. Which aired a few days before the 2024 US presidential election.
He said the publicly funded broadcaster acknowledged that “the way the speech was edited gave the impression of a direct call for violent action.”
He rejected claims of systemic bias in the broadcaster’s news reporting.
What was wrong with the Trump documentary?
Since then the pressure on BBC officials has increased daily telegraph Excerpts were published from an internal dossier criticizing the editing of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech, which was delivered before a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.
The Panorama event showed Trump telling supporters that “we’re marching on the Capitol” and that they will “fight like hell,” but those lines came from different parts of his speech.
The leaked document described “serious and systemic problems” with the BBC’s impartiality, adding that the Panorama edit was “grossly misleading”.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer denied that the BBC is institutionally biased or corrupt and said that the government supports the corporation.
“Mistakes have clearly been made in this case and the Director-General and Deborah Terness have taken responsibility for those mistakes,” the spokesperson said.
Trump has previously filed lawsuits against US media outlets including ABC, CBS and the new York Times,
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko