Tim Davie to address BBC staff after Donald Trump’s legal threat

Outgoing BBC director-general Tim Davie will address staff this morning a day after US president Donald Trump threatened legal action if the corporation does not retract “false” and “defamatory” statements made about him in a documentary.

Mr Davie, who announced his resignation on Sunday after five years in the post, will do a video call where staff will also be able to ask him questions.

Later in the day, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is expected to make a statement in the Commons on the issues facing the BBC.

She is expected to speak about the corporation’s leadership and Mr Trump’s legal threat, which he plans to issue under Florida law.

It comes after local government minister Alison McGovern told Times Radio that the UK should not have a “national meltdown” about the BBC.

She said: “I think we need to make sure that the BBC, one of our most trusted media organisations, invests in quality journalism and tells the stories that we all want to hear.”

Ms McGovern declined to be drawn on whether she thought Mr Trump should be able to sue the BBC over the editing of the Panorama documentary, saying the president “can say what he wants, and he will do”.

Mr Trump threatened billion dollar legal action after a report from Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, raised concerns that a speech the Republican politician made before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021 had been selectively edited by the BBC.

BBC chairman Samir Shah has apologised for an “error of judgment” and two of the corporation’s most senior figures – chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness and Mr Davie – resigned from their positions on Sunday.

The Prescott memo raised concerns about the way clips of Mr Trump’s speech 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”.

Mr Prescott had been due to give evidence to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday but the session has been postponed.

The legal letter, from Trump counsel Alejandro Brito, demands that “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about Mr Trump be retracted immediately.

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

A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”

Mr Trump’s lawyer adds: “Failure to comply will leave President Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to recover damages for the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that the BBC has caused him to suffer, with all rights and remedies being expressly reserved by President Trump.”

The letter says if the BBC “does not comply” Mr Trump will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages.”

The White House may also consider restricting the corporation’s access to “open press events” as a result of the edit, according to a senior official quoted in the Telegraph.

Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US and previously settled a defamation case against ABC News after star anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.

He also settled a legal dispute with CBS News over an interview it broadcast on its 60 Minutes programme with former vice president Kamala Harris.

Mr Trump is currently engaged in legal action with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The US president has also taken action against the Associated Press after the wire service refused to call the Gulf of Mexico by his preferred name for it, the Gulf of America.

Responding to a letter from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Mr Shah said there have been more than 500 complaints since the publication of Mr Prescott’s memo raising concerns about the editing of Panorama.

He said: “We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

However, he said it is “simply not true” that Mr Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, “uncovered” issues that the BBC has sought to “bury”.

Downing Street has said the BBC is not corrupt nor institutionally biased, appearing to hit back at critics of the public broadcaster including Mr Trump.

Mr Shah said the BBC board will revisit every item set out in Mr Prescott’s memo, including the editing of the speech and the reporting of casualty figures in Gaza and “will take further action where appropriate”.