The UK publication, BBC, has issued an apology to President Donald Trump over the Panorama documentary editing, which resulted in the resignation of its director general, Tim Davie, and the BBC News chief, Deborah Turness.
However, the corporation has rejected Trump's demands for compensation after lawyers for the president threatened to sue for $1bn in damages unless the BBC issued a retraction, apologised and settled with him.
A rep noted, "Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump's legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday."
"BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president's speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme."
The spokesperson also highlighted that while BBC has no plans to show the documentary, titled Trump: A Second Chance?, on its platforms again, it will not be accepting the defamation claim.
As reported by The Guardian, the BBC has a strong legal case against Trump's complaints and is awaiting the US President response.
The corporation has already taken a hit from the resignations of Davie and Turness, which followed the splicing together of the Trump speech in an edition of Panorama last year.
The programme was broadcast a week before the US election. The edited 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 statement was taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart.
Concerns about the Panorama cut were raised in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC's editorial guidelines and standards committee, who left his position in the summer.
In the memo, Prescott highlighted the systemic bias at the BBC, which the corporation has denied.
Some in the BBC argue the Panorama edit did not change the meaning of the speech significantly, but others disagree. Shah has since apologised, while Davie said responsibility had to be taken for errors revealed in the Prescott memo.
