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The BBC is trying to get Donald Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit thrown out of court on the basis that the Panorama documentary at the centre of the claim was not available in the US, according to legal documents filed by the corporation.
The UK public broadcaster has filed a motion to dismiss the claim by the US president, with court documents stating that the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” given the UK public service broadcaster did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in the state. The filing adds that Trump’s claim that the documentary was available in the US on streaming service BritBox was not true.
Last year, the BBC was found to have misleadingly edited a speech by Trump on January 6 2021 for a Panorama documentary, which appeared to give the impression that he encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol building.
The broadcaster apologised for “unintentionally” giving “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. Director-general Tim Davie resigned in part as a result of the scandal.
Trump sued the BBC for up to $10bn and accused it of publishing “a false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory and malicious depiction”. The lawsuit was brought in his personal capacity in a federal court in Florida.
However, BBC insiders argue that the case could hinge on whether Trump’s lawyers can prove that the documentary was shown in Florida for the court to even hear the case.
The corporation has said that the documentary was not distributed in the US and that the broadcaster’s iPlayer streaming service was “geo-blocked” from viewers.
Trump’s lawyers have claimed that the show was available in Florida to subscribers of BritBox, a subscription streaming service, as well as using virtual private networks, which disguise an internet user’s location.
In the filing, the BBC said that “simply clicking on the link that plaintiff cites for this point shows it is not on BritBox”. Meanwhile, it added that Trump’s lawyers have not actually alleged “that any Florida citizen actually watched it using a VPN”, saying that “it is a crime to watch iPlayer without paying the UK licence fee”.
The BBC added that the president had also failed to “plausibly allege” the documentary was published with “actual malice”, which would be required for a defamation suit in the US, or prove any damage had occurred.
“Given the extensive allegations prior to the documentary’s release regarding plaintiff’s January 6 speech — and that shortly after the documentary, the President won the election and carried Florida by a wide margin — the documentary could not plausibly have caused any harm to his existing reputation,” it said.
The BBC has asked the court to “stay discovery”, where both parties gather information, ahead of a decision on the motion. The BBC lawyers flagged concerns that Trump’s lawyers would make the corporation go through a costly and lengthy discovery process.
“The plaintiff will seek broad, objectionable discovery on the merits, implicating the BBC’s entire scope of coverage of Donald J Trump over the past decade or more and claiming injury to his entire business and political profiles,” the filing said.
BBC insiders have also raised worries about the cost of fighting a long and drawn-out case, even if the corporation ultimately wins. In the filing, the corporation’s lawyers said: “The BBC is a United Kingdom taxpayer-funded non-profit news organization, and complying with discovery demands will draw its resources away from its public mission.”
The BBC said that “as we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.” A 2027 trial date has been proposed if the case continues.