The British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, on Thursday sent a personal apology to President Donald Trump of the United States over his speech edit.
The BBC, however, said there was no legal basis for Trump to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary his lawyers called defamatory.

DAILY POST reports that the documentary, aired on the BBC’s “Panorama” news programme just before the US presidential election in 2024, spliced together three parts of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol.

The edit was said to have created the impression that he had called for violence.

“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

Recall that lawyers for the President Trump threatened on Sunday to sue the BBC for damages of up to $1 billion unless it withdrew the documentary, apologised to the president and compensated him for “financial and reputational harm.”

The BBC, while stressing that Trump’s defamation case lacks merit, signaled that it believes his claim for financial damages is equally untenable.

In its statement, the BBC said Chair Samir Shah on Thursday “sent a personal letter to the White House making clear that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit.”

Similarly, British culture minister, Lisa Nandy said on Friday, that it was right that the BBC had apologised to Trump.

“They’ve rightly accepted that they didn’t meet the highest standards and that’s the basis on which the chairman of the board has offered this apology to the President of the United States,” she said.

BBC apologises to Trump over 2024 speech edit, rejects defamation claim