Former director-general Lord Tony Hall has told the BBC not to use taxpayers’ money to settle a possible legal case with the US President.
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion as the US President’s 6 January 2021 Panorama has spliced together the speech in the programme last year which made it look like Trump encouraged the Capitol Hill riots in 2021.
Lord Hall told the BBC, “No, [it] should not happen.
“You’re talking about public money. It would not be appropriate,” adding the edit was a “serious error.”
He continued that the “hard work, diligence and the belief in impartiality” of journalists who work for the corporation has been thrown out of the window.
The US President warned that the BBC will “probably” receive the lawsuit next week.
President Trump told GB News, “I’m not looking to get into lawsuits, but I think I have an obligation to do it.
“This was so egregious if you don’t. You don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”
Sir John Whittingdale echoed Lord Hall’s words telling GB News, “The licence fee is already becoming more and more unpopular as it goes up each year. And people feel less and less that they need to watch the BBC.
I think this would just add to the feeling of injustice about being forced to pay a licence fee.
Roger Mosey, former director of news at the BBC told ITV News, “Of course, He has a right to be aggrieved by the way the BBC edited the Panorama programme. If he is so aggrieved, it’s worth £5billion? I don’t quite believe that.
He didn’t even know he had been libelled in this way until a week ago, and somehow it has become the most damaging thing in his career.
