'We've got to fight for our journalism,' BBC director general tells staff

Davie to Address Staff Amid Trump Lawsuit Threat

BBC outgoing Director General Tim Davie is set to speak with staff on Tuesday morning, after Donald Trump threatened to sue the corporation for $1 billion (£760 million) over a Panorama programme.

The threat follows a leaked internal BBC memo which said the programme had misled viewers by splicing together two portions of Mr Trump's speech from 6 January 2021, making it appear as if he had explicitly encouraged the riot.

Mr Trump threatened legal action if the BBC did not make a "full and fair retraction" of the programme by Friday. The BBC has said it will respond "in due course."

Arriving at the BBC's London headquarters on Tuesday, Mr Davie said he was "very proud of the journalists in this building" who are doing "very important" work.

"I'm here to lead and support them personally," he told reporters.

resignation Resignations and Internal Concerns

Mr Davie's staff briefing will take place mid-morning. He said on Sunday that the "current discussion" around the corporation was not the sole reason for his resignation, but that it "understandably contributed" to it.

"Overall, the BBC is doing well, but there have been some mistakes... and as the BBC's Director General, I must take ultimate responsibility," he stated.

Deborah Turness, the corporation's outgoing CEO who resigned with Mr Davie, maintained on Monday that the organisation was not "institutionally biased."

Separately, BBC Chair Samir Shah has said that the BBC "would like to apologise" for the edit, which he described as an "error of judgment" that "gave the appearance of a direct call for violent activity."

The topic is likely to be discussed in the Commons later today during a private session of the Culture, Media, and Sport (CMS) Committee. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is also expected to make a speech.

⚖️ The Legal Threat and The Edit

On Sunday, Mr Trump's legal team wrote to the BBC, threatening legal proceedings over the "false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory" claims. The letter demands that the BBC issue an apology to the president and "appropriately compensate" him. Alejandro Brito, Mr Trump's counsel, also accused the BBC of defamation under Florida law.

The programme, which first aired on 24 October 2024, is no longer available on iPlayer. The BBC noted on Monday that it was "over a year old," as most current affairs programmes, including Panorama, are only available for 365 days.

The Edit in Question

1. Original Speech: In his address on 6 January 2021, Mr Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and -women."

2. Panorama Version: The programme showed him saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... And we fight. We fight like hell."

The two sections that were stitched together were reportedly more than 50 minutes apart.

🎙️ Expert and Political Reaction

Mark Stephens, a media lawyer, said it would be "impossible" for Mr Trump to bring the lawsuit in the United States, as his team would have to show the programme had been broadcast there.

"Panorama was not broadcast in the United States, and BBC iPlayer isn't available," he said. "It's not clear that any US court would have jurisdiction to hear the allegation." Mr Stephens added that he did not think this was "the particular court hill [Mr Trump] wants to die on," warning that "any damning word he's ever said is going to be played back to him and picked over."

George Freeman, a former New York Times assistant general counsel, described the $1 billion figure as "completely meaningless" and "empty."

"It's so meaningless that, when I was at the New York Times, we had a rule that the paper wouldn't print the amount sued for," he told the BBC's World Tonight programme. Mr Freeman said Mr Trump's team would need to demonstrate a "gross distortion" of his words and that "it was done intentionally to produce a different meaning."

The Leaked Memo

The unprecedented joint resignations at the BBC came after rising pressure following the leak of the internal memo by The Telegraph newspaper last week. The memo, written by Michael Prescott, a former independent external advisor to the broadcaster's editorial standards committee, also raised questions about other "troubling issues," including the BBC's Gaza coverage, anti-Trump and anti-Israel bias, and one-sided transgender reporting.

The BBC Chair responded on Monday, saying it was "simply not true" that the memo had uncovered problems the BBC had "sought to ignore" or "had done nothing" to address.

Political Fallout

• Sir Keir Starmer: The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said he did not agree that the BBC was "institutionally biased."

• Sir Ed Davey: The Liberal Democrat leader wrote in The Guardian that "right-wing militants have been attacking the BBC for years." He argued that Sir Robbie Gibb (a former senior BBC editor and later Theresa May's communications director) "should have no part" in naming the new director general, calling on the government to "ban him from the board immediately." Sir Robbie has not responded.

• Kemi Badenoch: The Conservative leader said the focus should be on the mistakes made "rather than chasing people because of their political convictions."

• Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg: The former Conservative MP told Newsnight that the government should "stay out" of the controversy. Regarding the legal threat, he said, "I would have hoped that the BBC would have reached an agreement with Donald Trump. It won't be a billion, but it will be something."

• Nigel Farage: The Reform UK leader told a London news conference that the BBC has been "institutionally biased for decades," asking: "Is this how you treat your best ally? How you handle your best friend?"