BBC in trouble over Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit

A federal judge in the country has said that there is no longer any obstacle to the continuation of US President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British media outlet BBC.

The judge made the order on Tuesday (November 10) local time. However, the court dismissed Trump's unfair trade practice allegations against the BBC.

The BBC edited and aired a video of Trump's speech, creating the impression that he had incited supporters to attack the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Trump sued the UK government-funded media outlet for at least $10 billion in damages over the incident.

US District Judge Jeffrey Koontz of the Federal Court in Florida has refused to dismiss Trump's defamation lawsuit against the BBC, saying Trump has made a credible case that the BBC knew or should have known that the edited video was damaging to Trump's reputation and could be misleading.

However, the judge's order does not mean that Trump has been able to prove the truth of his allegations.

Trump called the court's decision a "big victory." In a post on social media, he wrote, "We will continue to fight and defeat all those who try to mislead the American people."

A BBC spokesperson said they were surprised by the court's decision, but they respected the court's authority and were confident in their position.

The BBC previously admitted that the editing of the video was misleading and apologized to Trump for it, but refused to accept liability for defamation.

Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in Florida in December. He alleged that the BBC had combined two separate parts of his speech. In one part, he told supporters to march on the Capitol building. In another part, he said, "Fight with all your might." However, the part of the speech in which he called for peaceful protest was omitted.

The video of the speech was broadcast on the BBC's 'Panorama' program shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, which Trump won.

A leaked internal BBC memo later cited the video editing as evidence of possible political bias. Source: Reuters