The BBC could be forced to fork out millions in licence fee payers’ money as it vowed to defend itself from a $10bn defamation lawsuit launched by Donald Trump.
President Trump’s lawyers argue the depiction of him given in an edit of a Panorama documentary a week before the results of the 2024 US election, “was false and defamatory,” and claimed the corporation had “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world”.
But in a short but defiant statement issued on Tuesday, the BBC confirmed it plans to fight the legal action, saying: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
It comes as a host of senior political figures have called on the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to intervene and stand up for the BBC in the face of the president’s “outrageous legal threat”.
The Panorama programme, which was broadcast just a week before the 2024 US election results, is accused of misleading viewers by editing a speech Mr Trump delivered on 6 January 2021. It spliced two distinct clips, creating the impression that Mr Trump instructed the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
An ally of the US president has claimed that the cost to the BBC of defending the action could range between $50m (£37m) and $100m (£74m).
Chris Ruddy, founder and chief executive of conservative US media outlet Newsmax Media, said it was difficult to win a defamation lawsuit in the US as “the bar is very high”.
But he suggested the BBC should reach a settlement to avoid the cost of litigation.
However, Mark Stephens, international media lawyer from Howard Kennedy, told The Independent the true cost could be much lower.
He said: “If it’s struck out before trial, I think [litigation] will cost the BBC around $200,000. If it goes to trial, it will cost around $1m, maybe a little bit more. I’ve seen estimates saying around tens of millions, but that’s rubbish – the evidence is quite straightforward.”
The BBC said documents filed at a court late on Monday in a federal court in Miami asked for $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages for defamation, as well as the same amount for a claim of violating trade practices.
Former culture secretary Sir John Whittingdale, who negotiated the last BBC charter, expressed surprise that Sir Keir had not already taken the opportunity to try to persuade the US president not to go ahead with his legal action.
Speaking to The Independent, he said: “The prime minister is supposed to have this strong relationship with the president and he should have intervened in the conversations he has had with him before this happened.
“He certainly needs to get on the phone now to the president about it. This is bad for the BBC, bad for Britain’s reputation and bad for Trump himself.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey also piled the pressure on, saying that the prime minister should “stand up for the BBC against Trump’s outrageous legal threat”.
Sir Keir had been expected to talk to Mr Trump about the BBC after the scandal broke and the US president first threatened to sue, but after a delay of almost a week, their subsequent conversation only touched on the potential peace deal for Ukraine.
It is understood the two leaders have not spoken in the 24 hours since the news emerged of Mr Trump’s lawsuit, with a spokesperson for the prime minister insisting that “any legal action is a matter for the BBC itself”.
“We will always defend the principle of a strong, independent BBC as a trusted and relied upon national broadcaster, reporting without fear or favour. But as we’ve also consistently said, it’s vitally important that they act to maintain trust, correcting mistakes quickly when they occur,” the official added.
Meanwhile, Mark Damazer, a former controller of BBC Radio 4 and ex-assistant director of BBC News, told the broadcaster’s Today programme it would be “extremely damaging to the BBC’s reputation not to fight the case”.
And former culture secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan warned that it was the BBC’s board which “needs to get a grip”, saying Mr Trump’s lawsuit was “inevitable”.
After the report was leaked, BBC chair Samir Shah apologised on behalf of the BBC over an “error of judgement” and accepted that the editing of the 2024 documentary gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
The fallout from the report also led to the resignation of both director general Tim Davie and head of BBC News Deborah Turness.
The complaint was filed at the US district court for the southern district of Florida, and names BBC, BBC Studios Distribution and BBC Studios Production as defendants.
The main streaming platform that carries Panorama, BBC iPlayer, and the TV channel that carries it, BBC One, are not available in the US.
Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US and is engaged in legal action with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
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