Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC, demanding the broadcaster retract a Panorama documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit for at least $1bn (£760m). The threat follows a leaked internal BBC report that criticised the documentary for using a misleading edit of a Trump speech from January 6, 2021.
The leaked report, published by the Telegraph, alleged that the Panorama film “completely misled” viewers by splicing together two parts of Trump’s speech delivered up to an hour apart. The edit combined a line about walking to the Capitol with the instruction to “fight like hell”. BBC chair Samir Shah later apologised, calling it an “error of judgment”.
Trump welcomed the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness, which followed the leak. On his Truth Social platform, Trump thanked the Telegraph for exposing “corrupt journalists” and accused the BBC of being “very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also celebrated the resignations, posting on X that the BBC was “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine”. The BBC confirmed it had received a letter from Trump’s lawyers and said it would respond in due course.
The BBC, which is publicly funded and independent, has faced mounting pressure from right-wing critics accusing it of liberal bias, while left-wing critics argue it has been unduly influenced by previous Conservative governments. The tense atmosphere has left BBC journalists feeling exposed when reporting on contentious issues.
