LThe resignations of BBC Director General Tim Davie and Director General of Information Deborah Turness were not enough to calm Donald Trump’s anger. This Monday, November 10, the president of the United States threatened the British media with legal action after the broadcast of a documentary that combined two excerpts of Donald Trump’s speeches and gave the impression that he encouraged the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a letter sent Sunday, the president’s lawyers said the documentary must be removed by Friday or the outlet would face defamation charges. They assured that compensation of at least one billion dollars (more than 862 million euros) would be sought, according to a BBC report. But Mark Stephens, his lawyer, believes that Donald Trump would have difficulty justifying such a large loss. At the BBC, he assured that “it is difficult to see how this complaint can be successful, both financially and legally”.
The president’s lawyers also demanded that the outlet apologize and compensate Donald Trump for what they called “significant reputational and financial damage.” This documentary is no longer available on the BBC iPlayer video-on-demand service.
Complaints in Florida?
Lawyers for the Republican president say the BBC violated libel laws by intentionally omitting some facts and misleadingly juxtaposing others. Since the president’s home is in Florida, the mention of this law suggests that he plans to file his complaint there.
But under American law, it is generally difficult for public figures like Donald Trump to win defamation suits because they have to prove that the defendants knew, or should have known, that the information was false, but published it anyway.
Mark Stephens also assured that if a prosecution were initiated, “all the incriminating quotes he made would be blamed and scrutinized, which would not be very good for his image”. “Donald Trump risks turning a simple feud between the media and the BBC into a global scandal if the courts deem his statements inflammatory,” he explained.
This opinion is shared by Dominic Casciani, BBC legal expert. “Threatening to sue is not the same as making a strong case. The president must prove that he suffered significant harm, and US law provides very strong protections for free speech. This is why defamation law is complicated: it is all based on very fine-grained judgments,” he explained.
There is no systematic bias according to the BBC
In this documentary it was shown as part of the show Panoramawe see Donald Trump telling his supporters, on the evening of January 6, 2021: “We will march to the Capitol. I will be by your side, and we will fight like hell. » These are two well-spoken sentences by Donald Trump, but at two different moments in his speech. Their juxtaposition and omission of the word “peacefully” is considered misleading.
BBC chairman Samir Shah on Monday apologized for editing the image, while rejecting accusations of systemic bias in the handling of the information.
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Donald Trump welcomed both resignations. In a message posted on his Truth Social network, the Republican president wrote that “BBC executives, including Tim Davie, his boss, resigned/FIRED, because they were caught ‘faking’ my excellent (PERFECT!) speech on January 6th.”
“There was clearly a mistake made in this case, and the Director General and Deborah Turness have taken responsibility,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, who denied there was any corruption or institutional bias at the BBC. “The important thing is that the BBC maintains high, internationally recognized standards, that is our priority,” he later assured.
