The BBC This Thursday he apologized to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the editing, in one of his programs, of a speech of his from 2021 in which he seemed to incite his supporters to storm the Capitol, but has refused to pay him compensation.
The president of the BBC, Samir Shahhas sent a personal letter to the White House in which he clarifies to Trump “that he and the corporation regret the editing of the president’s speech,” which aired on the “Panorama” program.
“The BBC is not planning to broadcast the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ on any of their platforms,” Shah said.
However, he maintained that, “although The BBC sincerely regrets the way the video was edited“, they “strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation lawsuit,” as the US president has stated.
As the British station acknowledges, Trump said in his speech on January 6, 2021: “Let’s walk to the Capitol and we are going to encourage our brave senators and congressmen.”
More than 50 minutes later, during his speech, the president said: “And we fought. We fought like demons.”
“In the program Panorama 2024, the video shows him (Trump) saying: ‘We are going to march to the Capitol… and I will be there with you. And we will fight. We will fight like demons,'” admits the BBC.
That day, the US Congress was to formally certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Hours after the speech, a large group of Trump supporters who refused to accept his defeat to Joe Biden stormed the Capitol.
The montage of that speech is one of the elements included in an internal report that accused the British network of maintaining a “systematic bias” in its coverage.
As a result of that report, the director general of the BBC resigned, Tim Davieand the head of the chain’s information branch, Deborah Turness.
This “serious bias”, according to the report, was also perceived in coverage of the war in Gaza.
After learning of the resignation, Trump sent a letter to the British corporation in which he threatened to sue for $1 billion to the BBC if they did not remove the video.
The president considered Panorama’s information to be “defamatory”, “confusing” and “inflammatory”.
Trump’s legal team said Thursday that the US president has not yet filed a lawsuit against the BBC.