BBC chairman apologises for 'error of judgement' in Trump speech edit

The BBC’s chairman apologised Monday for an “error of judgement” involving the editing of a speech by US President Donald Trump, which has resulted in high-profile resignations at the UK broadcaster.

“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,” Samir Shah said in a letter to a parliamentary watchdog committee.

The BBC’s director general and its head of news both resigned Sunday after it emerged that a former external standards adviser had raised impartiality concerns over the editing of Trump’s speech to suggest he had directly instigated the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump threatens BBC with $1 billion lawsuit over speech edit

Conversely, US President Donald Trump has threatened the BBC with a $1 billion lawsuit over the “defamatory, malicious” editing of a speech he gave just before the 2021 US Capitol riots, according to a letter obtained by AFP.

Trump’s lawyers gave the British broadcaster a deadline of Friday to fully retract the documentary containing the edit, apologize and “appropriately compensate” the president “for the harm caused.”

If the BBC fails to comply “President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages,” it said.

The BBC said earlier Monday that it would “review” the letter from Trump’s legal team. It also issued a public apology for the editing.

Trump’s supporters rioted at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a bid to overturn the certification of his 2020 US presidential election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.

But the letter from his legal team said that the BBC edit gave a “false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory” impression of what he said in his speech outside the White House.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team confirmed that a letter had been sent to the BBC but did not give further details.

“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the presidential election,” the spokesman said in a statement to AFP.