A federal court in Florida has denied the BBC's motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump over its editing of his speech before the storming of the Capitol in 2021.
In his ruling, Judge Jeffrey Kuntz found sufficient grounds for the case to proceed and said the way the speech was edited could support a claim of "actual malice."
The lawsuit concerns an episode of the BBC's investigative program Panorama, which combined different excerpts from Trump's speech in a way that gave the impression he had encouraged protesters to storm the Capitol. The British broadcaster argued that this was routine editing intended to condense a roughly 70-minute speech into a 12-second clip and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
The judge rejected the broadcaster's position, finding that, at this stage, there was a reasonable basis for Trump's allegations of reputational harm. In his ruling, he noted that, assuming the allegations in the complaint were true, broadcasting an allegedly defamatory documentary close to an election could cause significant reputational damage
The judge wrote in his ruling, "It would be difficult for the court to accept any other interpretation without entirely discounting the importance and sensitivity of political elections." The ruling allows Trump's lawsuit to proceed but does not determine whether the broadcaster defamed him.
The judge then directly addressed the editing of the speech and the BBC's attempt to justify it, stating, "On its face, the editing alone may plausibly establish 'actual malice.'" He added, "The BBC seeks to portray this editing as a routine act intended to condense a seventy-minute speech into 12 seconds. But the court is not persuaded."
President Trump was quick to welcome the ruling, calling it a "huge victory".
The BBC, meanwhile, made clear that it intended to continue defending itself against the lawsuit. In response to the ruling, the broadcaster said, "We stand by our position and will continue to respond through the established legal process."