BBC's legal battle against Trump

British public broadcaster BBC's Chairman Samir Shah has refused to pay compensation to US President Donald Trump over a scandal involving the editing of different parts of one of his speeches, despite having apologized for the incident.

Arguing that there is no legal basis for a defamation lawsuit to be filed by Trump, Shah announced that they are determined to fight against Trump through legal channels.

In an email sent to BBC staff, Shah stated, "In this process, we are aware of the privilege of the funding provided to us and that we must protect the British public who pay us license fees. I want to state clearly that there is no change in our position. There is no legal basis for a defamation lawsuit in this matter, and we are determined to fight it," he said.

HAD APOLOGIZED TO TRUMP

US President Donald Trump stated in a statement last Friday that he did not find the BBC's apology sufficient and that he could file a compensation lawsuit. Trump said that the BBC had cut and edited different parts of his speech from January 6, 2021, to make it appear as if he were calling for violence, and that he was considering filing a lawsuit against the BBC for between 1 and 5 billion dollars.

In a statement made by the BBC last Thursday, it was announced that Chairman Samir Shah had sent a letter of apology to Trump due to the editing scandal, but it was stated that Trump's defamation claim was baseless.

BBC DIRECTOR-GENERAL TIM DAVIE HAD RESIGNED

The documentary program, in which Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, the day of the US Capitol riot, was edited to make it appear as if he were calling on his supporters to occupy the Capitol, was prepared for the BBC by a third party and was broadcast in the UK last November before the US elections. In the relevant part of the program, which was broadcast as an episode of the "Panorama" documentary series, Trump's statements, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you. We're going to fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," were included. On the other hand, it was revealed that the part starting with the phrase "We're going to fight like hell" was edited by cutting it from 54 minutes into Trump's speech and adding it to his previous statements, and that the speech was distorted in this way. The editing scandal broke out after the Daily Telegraph newspaper published a leaked old internal correspondence of the BBC and led to the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News Director Deborah Turness.

LAWSUIT TO BE FILED IN THE US

The US press announced that Trump's lawyers are preparing to file the lawsuit in Florida instead of the UK, as the statute of limitations for the defamation lawsuit has expired due to the fact that a year has passed since the incident. It was noted that Trump's lawyers argue that the editing in the documentary broadcast by the BBC "severely damaged the reputation of US President Trump and caused financial loss."

It is expected that the BBC will emphasize during the judicial process that the program was not broadcast in the US, was not accessible on digital platforms in the US, and therefore US voters did not have the opportunity to watch it. The British public broadcaster BBC is financed by license fees collected mandatorily from all households that watch live TV broadcasts.

Following Trump's announcement that he would file a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against the BBC, many citizens in the UK threatened to cancel their memberships if the license fees they paid were given to the US President.

News Source: İHA