【By Lin Chenli, Observer Net】According to the BBC and Reuters, on November 13 local time, the BBC stated that it had apologized to US President Trump for misleading editing in the "Panorama" program, the relevant program will not be broadcast again, and also rejected Trump's compensation request.
On November 3 local time, the UK's Daily Telegraph exclusively revealed that a 19-page report written by a former member of the BBC Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC) disclosed that the "Panorama" program maliciously edited video clips of Trump's speech in its 2024 documentary about Trump's campaign for re-election, splicing together content nearly an hour apart to create a false line of "inciting the Capitol riot," even reversing the sequence of images to create a false cause-and-effect illusion, seriously misleading the audience.
Trump giving a speech, screenshot from BBC documentary
Trump mentioned in his speech before the January 6, 2021 "Capitol Riot": "We will go to the Capitol to cheer for our brave senators and representatives." More than 50 minutes later, he said in his speech: "We must fight, fight with all our might."
The "Panorama" program edited the above speech into: "We will go to the Capitol, I will be with you. We must fight, fight with all our might." Trump believed that his speech was "altered," and this presentation "deceived" the audience.
Facing pressure from members of Congress and critics at the White House, on the afternoon of November 9 local time, BBC CEO Tim Davie and Chief Executive of News Division Deborah Turness resigned in disgrace. The New York Times believes that the BBC is facing its most serious crisis in decades.
Tim Davie (right) and Deborah Turness have resigned in disgrace, photo source
On November 10 local time, Trump increased the pressure, and his private lawyer sent a strongly worded legal letter to the BBC, demanding that the BBC apologize and retract the so-called "false, defamatory, derogatory, and inciting" statements about Trump, and warned that if no action was taken by the end of local time on the 14th, Trump would sue the BBC and claim compensation of "not less than" $1 billion.
In the "Corrections and Clarifications" section released by the BBC on the night of the 13th, it stated that after criticism of the editing method of Trump's speech, the "Panorama" program had been reviewed, "We admit that the editing unintentionally created an impression that we were showing a continuous part of the speech, rather than excerpts from different parts of the speech, which wrongly made people believe that Trump directly called for violent actions."
A BBC spokesperson said that day: "The chairman of the BBC, Samir Shah, has personally written to the White House, clearly expressing to Trump that he and the BBC are sorry for the editing of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, in the program."
"Although the BBC deeply regrets the way the video clips were edited, we firmly believe there is no basis for defamation claims," the spokesperson added.
BBC stated that its lawyers had written to Trump's legal team and listed five core arguments explaining why they believe they are not liable for compensation:
BBC does not have the right, nor did it air the program on its American channel; the documentary was only available to British audiences when it was uploaded to the BBC iPlayer platform; the documentary did not cause harm to Trump, as he successfully won re-election shortly after the program was aired; the editing was not intended to mislead the audience, but to shorten the long speech, and the editing was not malicious; the clip was never intended to be viewed in isolation, it was only 12 seconds of an hour-long program, and the program also included many voices supporting Trump; under U.S. defamation law, opinions and political speeches on matters of public concern are highly protected.
A BBC insider said that the company had strong confidence in the arguments and defense positions put forward.
On the same day, Trump's legal team stated that Trump's side had not yet filed a lawsuit against the BBC. Earlier on the same day, White House Press Secretary Levitt had stated that Trump was deeply concerned about the "spliced" speech, and that his external team had filed a lawsuit against the BBC. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the statement.
Earlier that day, the Daily Telegraph, which first reported the incident, again revealed that two years before the misleading clip of the "Panorama" program was aired, another BBC program, "Newsnight," had used similar methods to edit the same speech fragment.
In the "Newsnight" episode that aired in June 2022, Trump's speech was presented as: "We will go to the Capitol. Cheer for our brave senators and representatives. We must fight, fight with all our might. If you don't fight with all your might, your country will cease to exist." Then, host Kirsty Wark added a voiceover over the footage of the Capitol riot, saying, "They actually acted on it."
Regarding the Daily Telegraph's latest report, a BBC spokesperson said: "BBC has always adhered to the highest editorial standards. We have noted this matter and are currently investigating it."
This article is an exclusive article from Observer Net. Without permission, it cannot be reprinted.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572396798115987983/
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