By Jack Queen and David Thomas
Dec 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump sued the BBC for up to $10 billion in damages over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.
Trump accused Britain's publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of a January 6, 2021 speech, including one section where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said "fight like hell". It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest.
Trump's lawsuit alleges the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. He is seeking $5 billion in damages for each of the lawsuit's two counts.
RIGHT THAT BBC 'STANDS FIRM', MINISTER SAYS
The BBC said it would defend the case and would not make any further comment.
It had previously apologised to Trump, admitted an error of judgment and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. But it has said there is no legal basis to sue.
British minister Stephen Kinnock said the BBC had apologised and said there were no grounds for legal action.
"It's right that the BBC stands firm on that point," he told Sky News on Tuesday.
Trump, in his lawsuit filed on Monday in Miami federal court, said the BBC despite its apology "has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses."
The BBC is funded through a mandatory licence fee on all TV viewers, which UK lawyers and analysts say could make any payout to Trump politically fraught. It had total revenue of 5.9 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) in its last financial year, including the licence fee and commercial income.
A spokesman for Trump's legal team said in a statement the BBC "has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda."
CRISIS LED TO RESIGNATIONS
Facing one of the biggest crises in its 103-year history, the BBC has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
The dispute over the clip, featured on the BBC's "Panorama" documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, sparked a public relations crisis for the broadcaster, leading to the resignations of its two most senior bosses.
Trump's lawyers say the BBC caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm.
The BBC has said the documentary was not broadcast in the United States.
The lawsuit, however, stated that it was available in the U.S. via a BBC-owned streaming platform called BritBox.
It also said Canadian group Blue Ant Media had the rights to distribute the documentary in North America.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a question on whether the documentary was available on BritBox or whether Blue Ant Media had sold it to any U.S. broadcaster or streamer.
The documentary drew scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation of political bias at the broadcaster.
Trump may have sued in the U.S. because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the "Panorama" episode.
To overcome the U.S. Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the press, Trump will need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.
The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim the program did not damage Trump's reputation.
Other media have settled with Trump, including CBS and ABC when Trump sued them following his comeback win in the November 2024 election.
Trump has filed lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a newspaper in Iowa, all three of which have denied wrongdoing.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential win over Trump in the 2020 U.S. election.
($1 = 0.7458 pounds)
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; additional reporting by Sarah Young in London; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Clarence Fernandez, Amy Stevens, Andrew Heavens, Lincoln Feast and Sharon Singleton)
