BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from Reith lecture

Journalists not allowed to repeat Rutger Bregman’s corruption claims against US president in coverage of edit

BBC presenters and journalists have been told they cannot quote a line removed from its prestigious annual lecture, in which a Dutch writer accused Donald Trump of being “the most openly corrupt president in American history”.

Rutger Bregman accused the BBC of cowardice after it decided to remove the line from the first of his Reith lectures, which he was invited to give by the corporation.

The BBC said the decision was made after it received legal advice. Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for up to $5bn (£3.8bn) for the way Panorama edited the speech he gave on the day of the Capitol riots in January 2021.

BBC outlets have been told not to repeat Bregman’s corruption allegation against Trump even in its news coverage of the decision to cut the line from the speech.

In an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Media Show that discussed Bregman’s claims of censorship, the presenter Ros Atkins said: “Also, for legal reasons, we’re not able to tell you what that line is.”

An earlier article on the BBC News website covering the edit of Bregman’s speech stated: “BBC News is not repeating the line in question on the same legal advice.”

Bregman said the BBC’s decision to not even mention his comments in news coverage suggested deeper problems.

“If BBC journalists are not allowed to mention a sentence in a story about censorship, then the problem is far bigger than one line in my lecture,” he said. “That is precisely the dynamic my first Reith lecture describes: institutions censoring themselves out of fear of those in power.

“It’s essential that the British public learn who made this decision, when, and on what grounds. I was told the decision was made because of US lawyers. But lawyers don’t make decisions. Leaders do. And I share this with full respect for BBC journalists, who do crucial work under increasingly difficult conditions.”

The BBC has been contacted for comment.

Trump has threatened the BBC with a lawsuit over a Panorama programme that edited together two separate parts of a speech. The BBC has apologised for the mistaken impression that Trump had made a direct call for violent action on the day of the Capitol riots. No suit has yet been filed.

The Panorama edit, and the internal dispute over how to respond to it, led to the resignations of the director general, Tim Davie, and the BBC News chief, Deborah Turness.

Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chair of the culture media and sport select committee, said the decision not to repeat Bregman’s corruption allegations in the BBC’s news coverage was a damaging consequence of the Panorama edit.

She told the Media Show: “The fact that everyone is now tiptoeing very carefully around and unable to say things even on your programme for the threat of legal action, just shows where we’ve come to in this.

“I think it’s just a bit bizarre. First of all, it’s really important to differentiate between what’s news reporting and what’s a lecture, which has a very different purpose altogether.

“But I have to say, if the BBC is finding itself nervous about what it’s reporting about the Trump administration, then that has to be seen as a very direct, very regrettable result of the mistakes it’s made in editing the Panorama documentary.”

The former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber called the editing of Bregman’s lecture a “terrible, weak-kneed decision”.

“I suppose there was legal advice,” he said. “But again, speaking as an editor, the lawyers don’t have the last word. This is the Reith lecture. It’s a matter of opinion … There is a perfectly adequate defence.”

Dinenage suggested Samir Shah, the BBC’s chair, should be kept in place despite concerns over his handling of allegations of bias, of which the Trump edit formed a part. Shah appeared before the committee on Monday.

Dinenage said: “The sense we had by the end of the session is that there is chaos in some parts of the BBC, and that the board themselves are certainly a part of this, and that there does need to be some real fundamental changes from within. Someone needs to get this back on an even keel.”