U.S. President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion (about 15 trillion won) damages lawsuit against the British public broadcaster BBC, saying his reputation was damaged by distorted editing in a documentary about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
On the 15th (local time), according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others, President Trump filed a complaint with a federal court in Florida. In the complaint, Trump's side said the BBC made "false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious portrayals."
It added, "Airing this one week before the 2024 presidential election was a vile attempt to interfere in and influence the election to produce an unfavorable result for President Trump."
Earlier, ahead of last year's U.S. election, the BBC's current affairs program "Panorama" edited in segments where President Trump told supporters to march to the Capitol and said to "fight like hell," while excluding the part where he urged a peaceful protest.
In particular, Trump's side argued that the "urge to march to the Capitol" segment and the "fight like hell" segment were "entirely separate parts" spoken nearly an hour apart, but the editing spliced the two together to intentionally misrepresent President Trump's remarks.
The BBC acknowledged the error and issued a public apology in early November this year, one year after the broadcast, admitting that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he directly incited violent action. BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News Chief Deborah Turness took responsibility for the matter and resigned.
However, because the statute of limitations for defamation lawsuits under U.K. law is one year, President Trump's side filed the suit in a U.S. court rather than a U.K. court.