THE BBC HAS apologised to US President Donald Trump over the editing of a speech which appeared on Panorama in 2024, adding it was an “error of judgement” and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

The corporation said chairman Samir Shah has sent a personal letter to the White House to apologise for the editing of the speech.

However, it added: “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

Earlier this week, Trump said he had an “obligation” to launch a billion-dollar lawsuit against the corporation, saying in an interview with Fox News that it had “defrauded the public” over the editing of the speech. 

Critics said the Panorama edit was misleading and removed a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

The episode, ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ has been taken down from the BBC website and a retraction was published on the webpage this evening.

“This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump’s 6th January 2021 speech was edited,” the retraction reads. 

“During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech.

“However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.

“The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement. This programme was not scheduled to be rebroadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.”

The scandal has seen two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness – both quit in response.

They announced their resignations after concerns were raised in Michael Prescott’s report that the speech had been selectively edited.

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On Monday, Shah issued an apology from the corporation over the “error of judgment” in the editing of the speech for the Panorama episode.

Responding to a letter from the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Shah said that there had been more than 500 complaints since the publication of Prescott’s memo, adding: “We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

The Prescott memo, first reported by The Telegraph, raised concerns about the way clips of Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 were spliced together to make it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.