According to Deadline, the BBC network is set on fighting Donald Trump’s multi-billion dollar legal threat and “protect our license fee payers,” according to chair Samir Shah. Shah said: “I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
As per Deadline, Shah is referring to the scandal around the Trump edition, which has caused the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness. Trump has stated that he will take legal actions and sue for at least one billion dollars this week over the Panorama edit, which spliced together two segments of his Jan. 6 speech to make it appear that he was inciting a riot.
According to Deadline, the BBC issued an apology to Trump, but Shah who has called the edit an “error of judgment,” maintained that the corporation does not believe that the president has a defamation claim.
“There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements,” said Shah via Deadline. “In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.”
As per Deadline, the majority of individuals from the UK pay an annual sum of £174.50 or 230 American dollars, a license fee, and the portion of this going to Trump might be a bit much for the British public to handle. The one billion sum that Trump is suing for is roughly double the BBC’s annual news and current affairs budget. Shah has been busy grappling with staff frustration over his handling of the situation along with question marks over the influence of board member Robbie Gibb.
Shah said via Deadline, that the BBC executive team “plan to spend as much time as possible with their teams over the coming weeks to reinforce the importance of that work and answer your questions.”
“We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” a chatty Trump told reporters last Friday night via Deadline.