BBC asks US court to throw out Trump's $10bn lawsuit and avoid chilling effect'

"The chilling effect is clear. Federal courts in Florida therefore frequently dismiss defective defamation claims like this one at the pleading stage. The corporation's lawyers cited a recent Trump lawsuit against CNN, which was dismissed as meritless. The 2022 suit objected to the network's use of the phrase the big lie, which it used to refer to the president's claim that the 2020 election was stolen."

"They also cited other cases to argue that defendants should not have to deal with expensive yet groundless litigation, which restricted the ability to cover public figures. All the more so when [the] plaintiff is among the most powerful and high-profile individuals in the world, on whose activities the BBC reports every day, the BBC's case states."

"The BBC has already apologised personally to Trump for a 12-second clip in the 2024 documentary, which spliced together two parts of the speech made on 6 January 2021. The clip suggested that Trump told the crowd: We're going to walk down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell. The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart."

The BBC filed motions in a Florida court requesting dismissal of Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit regarding a Panorama documentary that edited one of his speeches. The BBC's legal team argued the court lacks jurisdiction since the documentary aired only in the UK before Trump's re-election, and that proceeding would create a chilling effect on reporting about public figures. The broadcaster acknowledged a 12-second clip spliced together two sections of Trump's January 6, 2021 speech made nearly an hour apart, creating a misleading impression. The BBC previously issued a retraction and personal apology for unintentionally suggesting Trump called for violent action. The legal team cited precedent from Trump's dismissed CNN lawsuit and argued expensive, groundless litigation restricts media coverage of powerful individuals.

Read at www.theguardian.com