The IPI global network is deeply alarmed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s filing of a $10 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over the broadcaster’s editing of Trump’s comments during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. While the BBC has apologized, with this egregiously disproportionate multibillion-dollar lawsuit, Trump has signaled his determination to take his campaign to punish the press global.
The lawsuit, filed on December 15 in Florida, claims that the BBC’s documentary show, Panorama, aired a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” which constituted “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The lawsuit also accuses the BBC of “deceptive and unfair trade practices.”
The BBC said they would fight the lawsuit.
The episode at the center of the legal dispute aired in October 2024, before the U.S. presidential election. In it, the BBC spliced two different parts of the president’s January 6, 2021 speech together, which the lawsuit contends gives the false impression the president had directly called for the violent riot that occurred later that day at the U.S. Capitol building. The episode did not air in the U.S.
The BBC issued a formal apology on November 13, in response to a letter from Trump’s legal team arguing that the broadcaster had interfered in the 2024 presidential election and demanding the broadcaster retract “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about the president and pay damages for “financial and reputational harm.”
In its November apology, the BBC said it would not re-air the episode, acknowledging there had been an “error of judgement” in the editing of the clip, but maintained there was no basis for a defamation suit or compensation for damages.
“This lawsuit is plainly disproportionate, and its excessively punitive nature is in line with Trump’s attempts to target news organizations — including outlets beyond U.S. borders — that report critically on the administration,” IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said. “It’s also a clear and alarming signal that the Trump administration plans to take its pressure campaign global — and is intended as a warning to media outlets around the world.”
The lawsuit against the BBC is Trump’s latest salvo in a wider campaign against the press. In the past year, Trump has filed and settled major retaliatory lawsuits against U.S. media outlets ABC and CBS News. Both media companies agreed to pay Trump $15 and $16 million U.S. dollars, respectively, despite the agreement of legal experts that the lawsuits lacked legal merit and would not hold up in court.
Encouraged by these legal successes, Trump has continued his onslaught against the American press, filing a barrage of other multibillion-dollar defamation and libel lawsuits against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for critical coverage of his administration.
Trump has also taken aim at U.S. public broadcasters, slashing the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and leading efforts to defund the U.S.’ international broadcasters, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia, which serve as a critical source of news and information in countries where press freedom is under threat.
The president has also threatened to weaponize the U.S.’ media regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), against outlets whose coverage he finds objectionable.
Following the controversy at the BBC, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he was looking into whether “any FCC regulations have been implicated” by the BBC’s Panorama edit of Trump’s January 6 speech. In a letter to the BBC, Carr asked if the episode had been aired on any U.S. public broadcasters.
The fallout from the BBC lawsuit will likely extend far beyond the United States and the United Kingdom. There are concerns that Trump’s legal action against the British broadcaster sets a dangerous precedent that may be replicated by non-democratic governments, who may now feel emboldened to sue the BBC and other international broadcasters whose content they find objectionable.
Several governments have already indicated they would take a “tougher line” on the BBC — as Reuters reported, one diplomat pointed out that if a UK ally can sue the BBC, so could they.