Donald Trump has sent a letter to the BBC threatening them with legal action over the way a speech of his was edited in a Panorama programme.
On Sunday, director general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness both announced their resignations, following criticism over a the way a Panorama documentary edited Donald Trump’s infamous January 6 speech in 2021.
A leaked 19-page memo on impartiality by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, ruled the broadcaster gave the impression that he told supporters he would march with them to the US Capitol to “fight like hell.”
The sequence appeared in the BBC documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which aired the week before last year’s US election.
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On Monday, BBC News revealed that Trump had since sent a letter to the corporation threatening legal action over the programme.
The BBC has confirmed it has received the letter and will respond in due course.
Fox News reports that in the letter to the corporation, Trump demanded a a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published,” an immediate apology and compensation.
If the BBC does not comply with this, he has threatened them with a legal action for $1bn in damages.
Trump had already welcomed the news of Davie and Turness’s resignations, after having previously attacked the BBC over the Panorama programme and labelling the journalists involved “corrupt.”
Speaking outside the BBC, Turness dismissed Trump’s comments, along with claims from some that the BBC was institutionally biased.
She said: “I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.”
“I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.”
On President Trump’s comments about the corporation, she said: “Of course our journalists aren’t corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality and I will stand by their journalism.”