The BBC issued a formal apology to United States President Donald Trump on Thursday for an editing error in a 2024 Panorama documentary that spliced together portions of his January 6, 2021, speech in a way that altered its context.
The apology follows intense pressure from Trump’s legal team, which had threatened to sue the broadcaster for $1 billion in damages unless it retracted the program, apologized, and paid compensation by a Friday deadline.
BBC Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House expressing regret for the edit in the documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”
A separate letter from BBC lawyers to Trump’s team stated that while the corporation “sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” it strongly disagrees that there is a basis for a defamation claim.
The BBC confirmed it has no plans to rebroadcast the episode on any of its platforms but rebuffed demands for financial settlement.
The Panorama program, aired a week before the 2024 U.S. election, combined non-consecutive segments of Trump’s speech, creating the impression that he directly said “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the original address, the phrase “fight like hell” appeared 54 minutes after the reference to walking to the Capitol.
The editing error triggered the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness, and sparked widespread criticism over editorial standards and allegations of bias at the public broadcaster.
A separate 2022 Newsnight segment was also found to have used similar splicing of the same speech.
The BBC has denied claims of systemic bias and maintains it holds itself to the highest editorial standards.