By Chris Williamson–
The BBC will take legal steps to have Donald Trump’s 10 billion dollar defamation lawsuit over a Panorama programme edit dismissed, court documents have shown.
Panorama faced criticism late last year over an episode broadcast in 2024, for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.
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In the episode, a clip from Mr Trump’s speech on January 6 2021 was spliced to show him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
Mr Trump had actually said he would walk with them “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”. Trump is seeking up to 10 billion dollars (£7.5 billion) in damages in response to the editing of the speech, with his lawyers claiming it was “false and defamatory”. The footage was shown a week before the U.S elections, and was said to have misled viewers.
Two senior BBC executives as a result stepped down after the controversy over the Panorama episode. Tim Davie , Director-General of the BBC, waved good bye to his £547,000 a year job, and Debbie Turner left her £430, 000 a year job over the scandal.
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Their resignations came amid intense scrutiny of the editorial decisions that allowed the edited clip to air, and criticism that the corporation failed to uphold its impartiality standards.
The revelation by The Telegraph at the time led to a cross section of Parliamentary Mps stating that the BBC had a lot to answer to.
The distorted footage was highlighted in a 19-page dossier on BBC bias, which was compiled by a recent member of the corporation’s standards committee and is now circulating in government departments.
The dossier said the programme made the US president “‘say’ things [he] never actually said” by splicing together footage from the start of his speech with something he said nearly an hour later.
It claimed senior executives and the BBC’s chairman had ignored and dismissed a number of serious complaints raised by the corporation’s own standards watchdog.
The initial lawsuit filed by Donald Trump’s lawyers runs into about 33 pages, and lays out the allegations against the BBC and the legal basis for the suit.
The document names Trump as plaintiff, the BBC, BBC Studios Distribution Ltd, and BBC Studios Productions Ltd. as defendants.
The BBC argues the Florida court lacks personal jurisdiction, that the case was filed in an improper venue, and that Trump failed to state a valid defamation claim — including lack of evidence of “actual malice.”
It also contends the documentary wasn’t created, produced, or streamed in Florida or the U.S., undermining jurisdiction and damages claims. The BBC has asked the court to stay discovery while the motion is pending.
A 2027 trial date has been proposed should the case continue.
The Eye Of Media.Com today asked the BBC to confirm exactly when it plans to file the motion to dismiss, but the corporation declined to engage with this question, in line with its decision not to comment further on the matter.
A routine response was sent by a BBC spokesperson , which read: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings”.
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