BBC should pay nothing to Trump, former director general says

Former BBC chief Lord Tony Hall has said that the BBC should never agree to pay any money to Donald Trump. The corporation has apologized to the US President for a Panorama episode that spliced portions of his 6 January 2021 address together, but refUSed to compensate him. Since the corporation's retraction, Trump has confirmed that he would take legal proceedings, potentially increasing the amount he could sue for to between $1 billion (£759 million) and $5 billion. Lord Hall told Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC that if he could ever understand why license fee payers' money was used to pay Trump off: "No, [it] should not happen. You're talking about public money. It would not be appropriate.

Lord Hall resigned as the director general of the United Kingdom in 2020 after seven years in office. The controversy surrounding how Trump's speech was edited has resulted in the departures of BBBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness. Lord Hall told the BBC that the video editing was a serious mistake, and that it should have

been acknowledged as such early in the process. Lord Hall expressed concern over the fact that the

hard work, diligence, and the belief in impartiality

of BBC journalists had been missing in the discussion. Two senior figures' resignations at the start of theBBC's charter renewal make the process more difficult

at a critical time for the company's future," he said.

The BBC released a statement on Thursday evening on itsCorptions and Clarifications page, in which it said the Panorama program, which was only broadcast on October 28, 2024, had been updated after criticism of how Trump's speech had been edited.

We admit that our editor mistakenly created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech rather than excerpts from various points in the speech,

the statement said. Lawyers for the BBC have written to Trump's legal team, according to a BBC spokesperson this week.

In an interview with GB News on Saturday, Trump said he had a right to sue the BBC, but that he could not prevent it from happening again with other people. He branded the editegregioUSandworse than the Kamala thing," referring to a controversy he had with US news company CBS over an interview for his 2024 election rival Kamalo Harris on the 60 Minutes show.

On Sunday, at 0900 GMT, the complete interview with Lord Tony Hall can be seen with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.