The US president has threatened to sue the broadcaster for up to $5 billion over an edited January 6 documentary<\/p>\n
The BBC is \u201cdetermined to fight\u201d any defamation suit brought by US President Donald Trump, chairman Samir Shah said on Monday, as cited by British media outlets. Trump earlier accused the broadcaster of deceptively editing parts of his speech delivered before the 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
\nSpeaking to reporters on Friday, the president promised that his team would sue the BBC for \u201canywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,\u201d despite receiving a formal apology.
\nThis came just days after the BBC apologized for airing a documentary that edited a speech Trump gave shortly before the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021, when supporters stormed the building during the certification of Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 election victory. The broadcaster previously admitted that the edit \u201cgave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Attempts to defend BBC are a \u2018disgrace\u2019 \u2013 Lavrov<\/p>\n
In a letter to staff seen by local media, Shah said,\u00a0\u201cthere is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our license fee payers, the British public,\u201d he said on potential legal and settlement costs.
\nOn Sunday, the BBC\u2019s former director general, Tony Hall, echoed the sentiment, saying the broadcaster should not pay out, given that any settlement would essentially be made with public money.
\nAs the dispute escalated, BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned. Davie acknowledged that \u201cthere have been some mistakes made,\u201d pointing to \u201cthe current debate around BBC News,\u201d though he did not directly mention Trump\u2019s criticism.
\nThe broadcaster has also been accused of pro-Israel bias and of dehumanizing Palestinians during the Gaza war.
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested last week that attempts to shield the BBC from blame are a \u201cdisgrace,\u201d adding that the British media is waging an \u201cunprofessional and harmful\u201d information campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US president has threatened to sue the broadcaster for up to $5 billion over an edited January 6 documentary The BBC is \u201cdetermined to fight\u201d any defamation suit brought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t