Donald Trump has once again unsheathed his legal sword — this time aimed at the BBC. The broadcaster confirmed Monday that it had received a formal letter threatening legal action from the former U.S. president after admitting that an edited clip of his 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary created a misleading impression of his remarks about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The warning letter followed the leak of an internal BBC memo criticizing the 2024 Panorama program titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” which examined Trump’s political comeback. The BBC acknowledged the editing error and pledged to respond to the letter “in due course.”
BBC Admits “Error of Judgment”
In a written apology to the U.K. Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, BBC chair Samir Shah admitted there had been an “error of judgment” in how Trump’s speech was edited. Shah explained that BBC News had condensed the speech to reflect how it was received by Trump’s supporters during the Capitol events — but conceded that “with hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal action.”
The documentary, Shah said, was reviewed multiple times by the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee as part of a broader assessment of its election coverage. The segment was not treated as a program complaint because it drew little public backlash.
