The BBC has urged a court to dismiss Donald Trump\u2019s multi-billion dollar lawsuit against it, arguing that a Panorama episode \u2013 which edited together different sections of a speech he gave \u2013 never aired in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms,\u201d a BBC spokesperson said on Monday. \u201cWe have therefore challenged the jurisdiction of the Florida court.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Trump is suing for defamation over the way Panorama spliced together his speech, which he claims made it appear that he had directly encouraged his supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed in Florida, accuses the BBC of \u201cintentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring\u201d his speech.<\/p>\n
The BBC has previously apologised to Trump over the Panorama edit, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation and trade practices claim.<\/p>\n
In the court documents, the corporation said \u201cthe chilling effect is clear\u201d when an individual as powerful and high profile as Trump \u2013 on whose activities the BBC reports every day \u2013 raises a claim like this.<\/p>\n
The corporation\u2019s motion to dismiss the case claims the Florida court lacks \u201cpersonal jurisdiction\u201d over it, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
It says the BBC aired the programme, called Trump: A Second Chance?, on its UK TV channels and its UK streaming service, iPlayer, but did not publish it in the US, including Florida. It also says that neither BBC or BBC Studios has its principal place of business in Florida, \u201cor is even licensed to do business in the state\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawsuit had claimed people in Florida may have accessed the programme using a virtual private network (VPN) or via the streaming service BritBox, but the BBC argued this was not correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BBC has never made the documentary available on BritBox, BBC.com, or any other distribution platform available in the US,\u201d the documents stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BBC prohibits the unauthorised use of VPNs to watch iPlayer from outside the UK and takes active steps to enforce this ban,\u201d they add.<\/p>\n
Steps include stating in its terms of use that VPN access is barred and using the GeoGuard service to block unauthorised users with IP addresses located outside the UK, the BBC said.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawsuit also cited agreements the BBC had with other distributors to show content, specifically one with a third-party media corporation, Blue Ant Media, that allegedly had licensing rights to distribute the programme \u201cin North America, including Florida\u201d.<\/p>\n
Blue Ant previously confirmed it had acquired the distribution rights, but said none of the company\u2019s buyers had aired the documentary in the US. It added that the version of the documentary it received \u201cdid not include the edit in question\u201d as the international version had been \u201ccut down in a number of places for time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Blue Ant is not named as a defendant in the case.<\/p>\n
Responding to that point, the BBC said the allegation that the documentary was distributed in North America by Blue Ant \u201cmisses the mark as well\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, no third-party distributor aired the documentary in the US,\u201d the documents state.<\/p>\n
The BBC also reiterated its defence that there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, having been re-elected shortly after it aired.<\/p>\n
A BBC spokesperson said: \u201cWe have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut simply, the documentary was never aired in Florida or the US. It wasn\u2019t available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms, including BritBox and BBC Select.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have therefore challenged the jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the president\u2019s claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is understood that Trump has two weeks to respond to the motion to dismiss, although he may request a reasonable extension.<\/p>\n
During Trump\u2019s speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, he told a crowd: \u201cWe\u2019re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we\u2019re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: \u201cAnd we fight. We fight like hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: \u201cWe\u2019re going to walk down to the Capitol\u2026 and I\u2019ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Criticism of the edit emerged more than a year later when a leaked internal memo was published by the Telegraph newspaper.<\/p>\n
This led to the resignations of the BBC\u2019s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness.<\/p>\n
The president is seeking damages in relation to the editing of his speech, which his lawyers have claimed was \u201cfalse and defamatory\u201d.<\/p>\n
BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised for the edit, which he described as an \u201cerror of judgement\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last month, a Florida judge rejected the BBC\u2019s application to delay the process of discovery in the case.<\/p>\n
A proposed trial date in 2027 has been indicated, should the case progress.<\/p>\n
The post BBC urges court to dismiss Trump Panorama lawsuit<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The BBC has urged a court to dismiss Donald Trump\u2019s multi-billion dollar lawsuit against it, arguing that a Panorama episode \u2013 which edited together different sections of a speech he gave \u2013 never aired in the US. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms,\u201d a BBC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}