BBC-Trump crisis live: Broadcaster ‘set to apologise’ to president as $1bn legal threat deadline looms

Reform UK have “politely declined to participate” in a BBC documentary, saying that “trust has been lost”.

The film, ‘Rise of Reform’ was set to be presented by Laura Kuenssberg and produced by an independent company October Films.

This same company was involved in the BBC Panorama film which featured Trump’s edited Capitol speech from 6 January 2021, which the party called “disinformation”.

While October Films was not directly responsible for this edit, which was made by BBC staff, the Reform party sent a memo cancelling its appearance.

The memo read: “We want to be clear that October Films have always conducted themselves professionally, and there is no suggestion from our side that they would maliciously misrepresent Reform UK.

“However, following the Panorama documentary the trust has been lost, and both BBC and the production company will have to do a lot of hard work to regain that trust.”

The US president is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn in the latest round of his attacks on the mainstream media.

The corporation has made mistakes but this is the moment to fight back, writes Jon Sopel.

Donald Trump would face legal hurdles in launching a $1bn lawsuit against the BBC over “defamatory” statements on Panorama, partly because the documentary may not have been aired in the United States.

Under defamation laws in Florida, where the US president has threatened to launch his case, Trump: A Second Chance? must have been available to view in the state for a lawsuit for damages to be filed.

The BBC, which is currently reviewing a letter from Mr Trump’s lawyer on the legal threat, has not confirmed if the programme was aired in the US state.

If it wasn’t shown on iPlayer in the US, or on the broadcaster’s global feed, media lawyer Mark Stephens said it could create an early stumbling block for the US president, reports my colleague Alex Ross.

BBC staff and leading political figures are calling for Robbie Gibb to step down from the BBC board.

So, who is the Tory ‘agent’ at the centre of a tangled web of politics and media interests, asks Katie Rosseinsky

One board member, Sir Robbie Gibb, faced sharp criticism in the Commons on Wednesday.

However, Starmer declined to comment on “the individual runnings of the BBC”.

The BBC board, which is led by non-executive chairman Samir Shah, comprises 10 members, with the director-general also serving on the board and chairing the executive committee.

The American broadcast media has capitulated in the face of Trump’s legal claims. It’s time the BBC showed they will not be cowed and call the president’s bluff, writes Alan Rusbridger

A former BBC chief has warned the under-fire public broadcaster was more vulnerable now than he had ever known it in the face of the current crisis.

While acknowledging the editing of a speech by Donald Trump, which has prompted the US president to threaten a billion-dollar lawsuit, was “wrong and damaging”, Lord Hall of Birkenhead echoed remarks there was “no institutional bias” at the corporation.

The independent crossbencher, who served as director-general of the BBC from 2013-2020, also called for an end to the once-a-decade process of reviewing the broadcaster’s deal or charter, which he suggested was used as a way of “upsetting” the organisation.

He argued halting the need for future renewals would strengthen the corporation’s independence and be “an amazing legacy from this government”.