2 weeks ago - If that is correct, that leaves the question of whether audiences viewed the Panorama via a subscription to Britbox, as has also been alleged. We have not yet heard back from Britbox on that point. The BBC is adamant the programme was not broadcast in the US. The president's case also relies on a claim of malice: that the BBC intended to do him harm. He is arguing it published the documentary one week before the election with "the express intent of interfering with it and trying to undermine President Trump's odds of winning re-election".

2 weeks ago - The suit accuses the British Broadcasting Corporation of producing a false and deceptive depiction of Trump in a Panorama documentary to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

October 28, 2024 - In late 2025, the episode was the subject of controversy after complaints were raised that it misrepresented Trump's speech to his supporters on the day of the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021 through its editing of the speech. Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC's editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC), made a criticism in a letter to its board.

November 9, 2025 - It previously apologised to Trump for the edit, but disagreed there was a basis for a defamation claim. The Panorama documentary, called Trump: A Second Chance?, was broadcast on 28 October 2024, just days before the US presidential election.

1 week ago - Mr Johnston said the Panorama edit was the "key unresolved issue" from the leaked memo, and that action had been taken to address the other concerns. The BBC has previously apologised for an "error of judgement" that meant the documentary gave "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action" during his speech on the day of the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021.

November 10, 2025 - Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC, following criticism over how a speech the US president made was edited and used in a Panorama documentary.

November 11, 2025 - The culture secretary tells MPs the BBC "has faced criticism from all sides", as Donald Trump threatens to sue for $1bn over a documentary edit.

2 weeks ago - As well as jurisdiction, whether anyone – and if so, how many – watched it, would affect the level of reputational harm (if any) Trump could claim had been caused to him. “The lack of any effort by the BBC to publish content even remotely resembling objective journalism, or to maintain even a slight semblance of objectivity in the Panorama documentary, demonstrates that the BBC had no regard for the truth about President Trump, and that the doctoring of his speech was not inadvertent, but instead was an intentional component of the BBC’s effort to craft as one-sided an impression and narrative against President Trump as possible.”

November 4, 2025 - The BBC has "serious questions to answer", a cross-party group of MPs has said, following reports that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump.

November 12, 2025 - The BBC chair, Samir Shah, has said the corporation would like to apologise for an “error of judgment” over the editing of a speech by Donald Trump for Panorama. The apology follows the resignation of two of the corporation’s most senior figures on Sunday – the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, and the director general, Tim Davie – who announced their departure after concerns were raised in Michael Prescott’s leaked report that the speech had been selectively edited. Trump threatens BBC with legal action over edit of speech in documentary

November 20, 2025 - Last week the corporation set out why it does not think it has a case to answer in a letter to Trump's legal team. As well as stating it did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels, the BBC also said that when the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.

2 weeks ago - At the heart of Trump's case stands an episode of the BBC television documentary program "Panorama" that compresses comments Trump made to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before they laid siege to the U.S.

2 weeks ago - Moreover, “as plainly seen in the very beginning of the Panorama Documentary, the BBC’s producers and a film crew contracted by the BBC’s producers traveled to Florida to film significant portions of the Documentary at and around President Trump’s home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, spending substantial amounts of time in Florida and capturing extensive footage on and around the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, and surrounding areas, that the BBC ultimately used in the Documentary,” the Trump lawsuit alleges.

November 15, 2025 - In its letter to Trump's legal team, the BBC set out five main arguments for why it did not think it had a case to answer. First it said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels. When the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.

2 weeks ago - Trump accused the BBC of publishing a false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction" of him in a BBC "Panorama" documentary that aired in the U.K. a week before the 2024 election.