Minister suggests BBC should apologise to Trump over documentary as president threatens $1bn lawsuit – UK politics live

Alison McGovern speaks to media about BBC crisis as culture secretary due to address MPs in attempt to contain fallout

Good morning. Yesterday the BBC in crisis story, that had primarily been about the resignations of its director general and its head of news, veered into international diplomacy when Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over the way it edited a clip of the speech he gave before his supporters attacked the US Capitol and people working there on 6 January 2021.

This is obviously awkward for the government, not least because the BBC is funded with taxpayers’ money and so any payout to the president would ultimately come from them.

I think the president can say what he wants, and he will do. And we know that.

If they’ve made an editorial mistake, then they should apologise … I think the BBC is probably chock full of policies on what they should do when they make editorial mistakes, so I think they should stick to it.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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