We explain the crisis facing the BBC in the UK, following misleading editing of Donald Trump’s speech

In response to this montage broadcast in 2024, the American president threatened public audiovisual groups with legal action for defamation.

“We are a unique and valuable organization, and I see press freedom under great pressure.” Tim Davie, the outgoing director general of the BBC, called on Britain’s public broadcaster to do just that “struggle defend our journalism“Tuesday, November 11, when delivering his first speech since his resignation announcement on Sunday. The decision comes after the revelation of a misleading montage of Donald Trump’s speeches, which threw public radio and television groups into chaos.

In front of BBC employees, the Director General admitted “violation of editorial rules”. At a time when Donald Trump is threatening the audiovisual group with legal action for defamation, franceinfo is back on the issue which is gaining momentum both in the UK and across the Atlantic.

At the heart of the problem is a misleading montage of Donald Trump’s speeches

On November 3, the British conservative newspaper Telegraph reveals notes written by Michael Prescott. The former independent advisor to the BBC’s editorial standards committee criticized misleading editing in the documentary about the 2020 American presidential campaign, which was broadcast in October 2024 on the “Panorama” program. This concerns a speech delivered by Donald Trump in Washington on January 6, 2021, shortly before the attack on the Capitol by his supporters.

Several different quotes put together as if they were the same sentence. In the documentary, viewers can hear the following lines: “We will march to the Capitol. And I will be with you. We fight. We fight like hell,” acknowledged the BBC. In fact, Donald Trump said: “We will march to the Capitol, and we will stand with our brave senators and representatives in Congress.” Then, more than 50 minutes later, he stated “We fight as hard as we can”BBC confirmation and documents revealed by Telegraph. “The montage broadcast by ‘Panorama’ is completely misleading”, criticized Michael Prescott in his notes.

After series of resignations, BBC apologizes for ‘error of judgement’

Amid the turmoil, BBC Director General Tim Davie and BBC News Director Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday. “Like any public organisation, the BBC is not perfect and we must always be open, transparent and accountable”states the first. Controversy “has reached a point where it is detrimental to the BBC”his colleague estimated, as media reported.

“The BBC would like to apologize for this error of judgement”wrote the chairman of the group’s board of directors, Samir Shah, on Monday in a letter to the British parliament’s committee on culture and media. “We realized that the way the speech was edited created the impression of a direct call to violent action.” Samir Shah is committed to “to strengthen” control of editorial rules at the BBC while maintaining public media work, which has been produced in recent years “thousands of hours” from “extraordinary journalism”.

In his note, Michael Prescott claims that those responsible for editorial standards at the BBC denied any breach of the rules, after mention of the editing. The allegations were denied on Monday by Samir Shah. He assured that this issue had been raised with the relevant program team, and acknowledged the steps “more formal” should be taken.

Donald Trump threatened the audiovisual group with serious demands

Shortly after the announcement of the resignation of the two BBC leaders, the American president lashed out, on his Truth Social network, “corrupt journalist” And “dishonest person”. “They were caught red-handed faking my very good (even perfect!) speech on January 6th,” he said.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s lawyers threaten the BBC with complaints “false and defamatory statements”. In a letter consulted by AFP, they gave the British group until Friday at 11 p.m. (Paris Times) to remove the documentary. It is no longer available online, via the iPlayer platform.

The American president’s defense also called for the withdrawal of other declarations “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory” about him, says the BBC. If the media refuses, “President Trump had no choice but to assert his rights (…), including by filing a complaint with a request for damages of no less than one billion dollars”, his lawyer warned. “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course”reaction of the audiovisual group spokesperson. Donald Trump, in his open war against the press, has stepped up threats and legal action against several American media outlets.

The affair became political in England

At the same time, the British political class capitalized on the controversy on the Channel. Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the BBC by highlighting this “an important role in the age of disinformation”. But he asked the group to do so “guard good quality” in his work.

Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch lamented otherwise “a catalog of serious failures”. Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s far-right Reform party, called “fundamental change” from public groups. For former BBC chairman Richard Tait, this group is his subject “relentless attack” conservatives and right-wingers, who own it “contributes to weakening public trust”.

The incident also revealed growing tensions within the BBC’s board of directors, some of whom are appointed by the government. Members of the conservative right accuse news programs of bias towards issues such as Donald Trump or the war in the Gaza Strip. The media regulator took the BBC to task in October over reporting from the devastated Palestinian enclave. The main narrator, a child, is the son of a senior official of the Islamic movement Hamas.