British broadcaster BBC's crisis takes a new turn as U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers have written to the organisation threatening a $1bn lawsuit if it does not retract Panorama documentary.
The letter which was obtained by the BBC's US partner CBS News warns that "The BBC is on notice".
The BBC also reports that the letter sets out three demands namely:
- Immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published
- Immediately issue an apology for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump
- Appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.
This comes as BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologised for "an error of judgement" in the editing of Trump's speech in one of its Panorama documentaries.
The publicly funded broadcaster has been embroilled in allegations of bias after the Daily Telegraph published details from a leaked internal memo by a former standards adviser which saw its Chief Tim Davies and head of News Deborah Turness resign.
The report highlighted shortcomings in the BBC's coverage of the Israel–Hamas conflict, transgender issues, and its handling of Trump's remarks.
Key findings from the memo, which was written by Michael Prescott to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, include:
TRUMP PROGRAMME
Prescott said that an edition of the BBC's flagship Panorama show broadcast a week before the U.S. election, "Trump: A Second Chance?", "seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance", noting that critics of Trump far outnumbered his supporters.
The programme spliced together two separate excerpts from one of Trump's speeches, creating the impression that he was inciting the January 2021 Capitol Hill riot, he said.
Trump was shown telling his supporters that "we're going to walk down to the Capitol" and that they would "fight like hell", a comment he made in a different part of his speech. He had actually said his supporters would "cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women".
ISRAEL-HAMAS COVERAGE
Prescott noted that several contributors to the BBC's Arabic service had selectively covered stories critical of Israel.
On one occasion, the BBC's main English-language news site published 19 separate articles about the hostages taken by Hamas on the day of the October 7 attack in 2023, while BBC Arabic published none. By contrast, every article critical of Israel that appeared on the BBC News website was also featured on BBC Arabic.
The memo also highlighted that while BBC Arabic often ran the same stories as the BBC's English-language website, there were significant differences in tone, headlines, and emphasis, with coverage generally more critical of Israel.
Prescott also criticised the BBC for allegedly misreporting the proportion of Palestinian women and children killed by Israeli military actions, as well as for inaccurately portraying the likelihood of children facing starvation under Israel's aid blockade.
TRANSGENDER COVERAGE
Prescott claimed that stories raising "difficult questions" about transgender issues were often overlooked, even when they had been widely reported and debated by other media outlets. He also noted that some features presented the transgender experience in an overly one-sided manner, lacking sufficient balance and objectivity.
The memo also noted that the BBC failed to cover certain stories, including a case in which a group of nurses sued their employer for permitting biological males to use their changing room.
IMMIGRATION ISSUES AND HISTORIANS
Prescott noted that the BBC sent few push notifications about illegal migrants or asylum seekers to its 7 million news app users, even as less significant stories received extensive coverage.
The memo also said that producers of four BBC programmes with historical content favoured non-expert academics who offered quotable sound bites on racism and prejudice, producing oversimplified and distorted narratives about British colonialism, slavery, and their legacy.
RACISM
Prescott wrote in his memo that the BBC "fell too easily for putting out ill-researched material that suggested issues of racism when there were none". He cited a report claiming that people living in areas with a high proportion of ethnic minority residents paid more for car insurance, even though road accident and crime rates were similar.
He noted that the reporting and commentary ignored other factors that can influence insurance costs, relied on outdated and unsuitable data, and featured only one guest who supported the claim. The Association of British Insurers declined to appear, and its statement, which provided crucial context, was selectively quoted. The report was later taken down.
But the outgoing CEO of News Deborah Turness has said this morning the organisation "is not institutionally biased" as has been repeatedly alleged.
Cuba and the United States have been at odds for more than six decades. The tensions are rooted in the 1959 rev...
Russian drone attacks on Ukraine have killed four people, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday (28 March). ...
The four astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis II mission have arrived in Florida, entering the final phase of...
More than 372,000 people were left without electricity in Russia’s southern region of Dagestan after heavy rain triggered severe flooding, of...
Thousands of U.S. Marines have been deployed to the Middle East, the Pentagon says, as Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis report launching a second mi...
Cuba and the United States have been at odds for more than six decades. The tensions are rooted in the 1959 revolution that transformed the island’s political and economic system. Renewed focus on relations comes as rhetoric from Donald Trump intensifies and conditions on the island worsen.
Russian drone attacks on Ukraine have killed four people, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday (28 March).
The four astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis II mission have arrived in Florida, entering the final phase of preparations for the first crewed journey towards the Moon in more than five decades
More than 372,000 people were left without electricity in Russia’s southern region of Dagestan after heavy rain triggered severe flooding, officials said.
The involvement of Yemen’s Houthis has heightened regional tensions as the Iran-aligned group joins the conflict. The U.S. says it is hopeful of holding talks with Iran in the coming days, while Tehran has said that "talking and bombing is intolerable". Welcome to our live coverage of the conflict.
Turkish military personnel participating in NATO’s mission in Iraq have been “successfully” withdrawn from the country, the Turkish Defence Ministry announced on Thursday.
The four astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis II mission have arrived in Florida, entering the final phase of preparations for the first crewed journey towards the Moon in more than five decades
Hamas would have to allow its vast network of tunnels in Gaza to be destroyed as it gives up its weapons over eight months, under a disarmament plan drawn up by the U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has voiced doubts about the effectiveness of the U.S. and Israeli military campaign in Iran, warning that the conflict risks becoming prolonged and increasingly complex.
Cuba and the United States have been at odds for more than six decades. The tensions are rooted in the 1959 revolution that transformed the island’s political and economic system. Renewed focus on relations comes as rhetoric from Donald Trump intensifies and conditions on the island worsen.
Russian drone attacks on Ukraine have killed four people, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday (28 March).
Nepal’s ousted former prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak have been arrested over alleged negligence linked to the deaths of protesters during anti-corruption demonstrations last September.
China is moving ahead with plans to establish a nationwide long-term care insurance system, aimed at supporting its rapidly ageing population and easing the financial burden on families caring for elderly relatives.
The U.S. Congress failed on Friday (27 March) to resolve a six-week funding impasse that has disrupted airports and left tens of thousands of federal workers without pay, raising fears of further travel chaos during the busy spring break period.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment