According to the suit, the selective editing falsely portrayed him as directly inciting violence and caused “overwhelming reputational and financial harm”.
United States President, Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit seeking $10 billion in damages against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), accusing the UK broadcaster of defamation and what his legal team described as a pattern of “serial fake news” reporting.
According to Al-Jazeera, the lawsuit, filed on Monday at a federal court in Miami, demands “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” on each of two counts — alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act — arising from a BBC documentary that edited Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech to supporters.
Trump accused the publicly funded broadcaster of deliberately splicing together parts of his speech, including a section in which he urged supporters to march on the US Capitol and another where he said, “Fight like hell”, while omitting words in which he also called for peaceful protest.
According to the suit, the selective editing falsely portrayed him as directly inciting violence and caused “overwhelming reputational and financial harm”.
Although the BBC has apologised to Trump, admitted an error of judgement and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action, Trump said the apology did not go far enough.
In the lawsuit, Trump stated that the BBC, despite its apology, “has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses”.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team reinforced that position, accusing the broadcaster of persistent bias.
He said the BBC had “a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda”.
The BBC, however, has maintained that there is no legal basis for the lawsuit.
The broadcaster said that to overcome the US Constitution’s strong protections for free speech and the press, Trump would need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory, but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.
Legal experts have noted that the BBC could argue that the documentary was substantially true, that its editing did not create a false impression, or that the programme did not cause measurable damage to Trump’s reputation.
The BBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the lawsuit was filed.
The controversy centres on a Panorama documentary aired shortly before the 2024 US presidential election.
The fallout from the edited speech triggered a major public relations crisis for the broadcaster and ultimately led to the resignations of its two most senior officials.
In November, SaharaReporters reported that the Director general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness stepped down at the BBC after a leaked memo exposed serious breaches of editorial impartiality — the latest in a string of scandals that have repeatedly forced leadership shakeups at the world’s most prominent public broadcaster.
The leak revealed that the BBC had aired a “doctored” version of a speech by US President Donald Trump, misleadingly suggesting he had incited violence during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
The internal report, authored by Michael Prescott, alleged that “among other things,” the BBC’s editing choices distorted key portions of Trump’s remarks.
In Trump's speech in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, he said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."
However, in the Panorama edit he was shown saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."
The two sections that were stitched together were originally more than 50 minutes apart.
The publication of the internal memo sparked criticism of the BBC, including from the White House, which described the corporation as "100% fake news".
In a note to staff, Davie said his resignation was “entirely my decision.” He added that as director general, he took “ultimate responsibility” for mistakes made by the BBC.
Turness described her decision as one borne of love for the institution, saying the controversy had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love.” “The buck stops with me,” she added.