BBC weighs apology to Trump

The BBC, the United Kingdom's public broadcaster, is reportedly set to issue a formal apology to United States President Donald Trump in an effort to avoid his threatened $1 billion lawsuit over the editing of one of his speeches, ahead of a Friday deadline to respond.

Earlier this week, the BBC conceded that an October 2024 episode of Panorama, its investigative current affairs program, could be understood to have implied the president had made a "direct call for violent action" after it emerged that two sections of his speech before the Capitol riots on Jan 6, 2021 had been spliced together.

The edit was among concerns flagged in a memo sent in June this year by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee. The memo was subsequently leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, which first reported its contents on Nov 3.

Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, said on Monday that "the BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment". This was after the BBC's Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness both resigned on Sunday over the controversy.

The corporation's leadership faces the Friday deadline to respond to Trump's legal action, which the White House says was filed in a court in the US state of Florida on Wednesday. Trump's legal team was seeking a full retraction, apology, and compensation before proceeding with the lawsuit.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday the BBC is also weighing a robust defense of its journalism, amid Trump's claims that it made "false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory" statements about him.

In December 2022, a US congressional committee found Trump had failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

Legal experts cited by The Guardian say the Trump team would face long odds of succeeding in any court case. This is because the Panorama episode was not available in Florida, and the US state's liberal libel laws would raise the bar further as Trump's legal team would have to show he suffered harm.

The program was broadcast too long ago for a legal case to be brought in the UK because the country's one?year limitation period for defamation claims has expired.

In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Tuesday, Trump stated he felt he had "an obligation" to sue the BBC.

"I guess I have to," he said. "They defrauded the public and they've admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally."

He added: "They showed me the results of how they butchered it up. It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of the other people quit."

Responding to questions on the issue from lawmakers in the UK parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "In an age of disinformation, the argument for an impartial British news service is stronger than ever. And where mistakes are made, they do need to get their house in order and the BBC must uphold the highest standards, be accountable and correct errors quickly. But I will always stand up for a strong, independent BBC."

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a media briefing on Wednesday that the BBC was a "leftist propaganda machine that is unfortunately subsidized by British taxpayers".