 |
| Image: Google |
United States President Donald Trump has taken legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), seeking no less than $10 billion in damages over a documentary he claims distorted his January 6, 2021 address to supporters ahead of the US Capitol unrest.
Filed on Monday at a federal court in Miami, the lawsuit demands “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” on two separate counts — defamation and alleged breaches of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Trump had earlier indicated that a lawsuit was imminent, accusing the broadcaster of deliberately misrepresenting his words. “They put words in my mouth,” he said, suggesting the footage may have been manipulated, adding that “they used AI or something.”
The legal dispute centres on a BBC Panorama documentary aired last year in the build-up to the 2024 US presidential election. The programme featured an edited version of Trump’s January 6 speech that merged two different segments, making it appear as though he directly encouraged supporters to attack the Capitol while lawmakers were confirming Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
In a statement to AFP, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said, “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
The statement further alleged that, “The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda.”
The controversy gained renewed attention last month following a media report that sparked internal turmoil within the BBC. The development reportedly led to the resignation of the broadcaster’s director-general as well as its top news executive.
According to the lawsuit, the edited clip was “fabricated and aired by the Defendants one week before the 2024 Presidential Election in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
Although the BBC has denied any legal wrongdoing, its chairman, Samir Shah, has written a letter of apology to Trump. Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee that the organisation should have acted faster after the error was flagged in an internal memo later leaked to The Daily Telegraph.
The case adds to a growing list of lawsuits Trump has filed against media organisations in recent years, several of which have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.
#DonaldTrump
#BBC
#Documentary
No comments:
Post a Comment