A deadline until Friday, November 14 to make a “full and fair withdrawal” of the documentary is given in his letter to the BBC by , otherwise he will proceed with a lawsuit of 1 billion dollars.
The letter, sent by the American president’s lawyers to the BBC, was obtained by NBC.
Trump gave the BBC a deadline of 5pm. EST (12 Greek time) on Friday to “comply”. Otherwise, the letter from Trump’s legal team states: “President Trump will have no choice but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, which he expressly reserves and does not waive, including legal action for damages of at least $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars).”
“BBC deliberately and fraudulently edited Trump documentary”
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told NBC: “The BBC defamed President Trump by deliberately and fraudulently editing his documentary to try to interfere in the presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who peddle lies, deception and fake news.”
On the other hand, a BBC spokesperson told NBC News: “We will review the letter and respond promptly in due course.”
The White House referred the request for comment to the outside legal team.
Apologies from the chairman of the BBC
BBC chairman Samir Shah in a Panorama documentary following the resignations of the BBC’s director-general and the broadcaster’s head of information.
Shah said the BBC recognized that the editing of Trump’s speech gave a misleading impression and should have been handled more carefully. He noted that the matter had been reviewed within the group this year, but said the public broadcaster should have taken formal action then.
“It is absolutely clear that the BBC must stand up for impartiality,” Shah said in a letter to British MPs, adding that the organization is committed to restoring public trust and ensuring its journalism meets the highest standards of impartiality.
Regarding the editing of Trump’s speech, he said that after further examination the BBC admitted that the way the speech was edited did give “the impression of a direct call to violent action”.
“The BBC would like to apologize for this error of judgement,” it said in the letter.
The Panorama show, which aired last year a week before the US presidential election, spliced together two separate excerpts from a speech by Trump, creating the impression that he was inciting the events of January 2021 on Capitol Hill.
The error was contained in an internal report by a former standards adviser, which also spoke of the BBC’s failures to cover the Israel-Hamas war, gender issues and other issues.
