BBC President Samir Shah issued a public apology on Monday to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, after it was confirmed that a documentary by the British broadcaster misleadingly edited segments of the speech the president delivered on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riots.
The incident led to a major international controversy and a threat of a lawsuit from Trump for 1 billion dollars against the British outlet, in addition to the resignation of Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness.
El presidente de la BBC, Samir Shah
The controversy erupted after the release of a leaked internal BBC memorandum, in which it was acknowledged that the Panorama program had altered the context of Trump's speech, joining two parts separated by more than 50 minutes to give the impression that the president was explicitly urging the crowd to attack the Capitol.
In the version broadcast by BBC, Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. We'll fight. We'll fight like hell." However, in the original speech, the president had called to "walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen," a phrase that was omitted by the editing.
Shah himself admitted that it was a "misjudgment" and that the documentary's editing gave the impression of a direct call to action, something that, as he acknowledged, did not correspond to reality. For that reason, the president of the corporation stated that "BBC wants to apologize for this."
El presidente de la BBC, Samir Shah
Additionally, Trump's legal team accuses BBC of having made "false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and incendiary statements" about the president. Additionally, it demands a full and fair retraction before November 14 and adequate compensation for the damage to his reputation. The lawsuit would be based on Florida's defamation laws, where Trump resides.
The case had a major impact within BBC itself. The leak of the internal memorandum also revealed criticism of the biased coverage of sensitive topics, such as the conflict in Gaza and the LGBT agenda, pointing to the existence of an anti-Trump and anti-Israeli bias within sectors of the newsroom.
As a consequence of the leak of the internal memorandum criticizing editorial practices at BBC, two senior officials resigned: Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness.
