The BBC is being accused of cutting a line from a speech that called Donald Trump “the most openly corrupt” U.S. president ever as the organization faces a possible $5 billion lawsuit from Trump over a separate dispute.
The British state broadcaster is under intense pressure after it was forced to apologize and two of its senior executives resigned over an edition of a show that stitched together two parts of the president’s Jan. 6 speech.
Rutger Bregman, 37, a Dutch author and historian who was delivering this year’s prestigious BBC Reith Lectures, said the broadcaster removed a “key line” from his remarks, with the decision made at “the highest levels.”
In a video statement, Bregman said the sentence describing Trump, 79, as “the most openly corrupt president in American history” had been taken out despite the lecture being commissioned, fully edited, and recorded before a live audience of about 500 people.
A BBC spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “All of our programs are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”
Bregman—who shot to prominence with a 2019 Davos tongue-lashing about tax avoidance—has warned of an “authoritarian breakthrough” in the U.S. and a wider resurgence of fascism, themes he revisits in his new series, “Moral Revolution,” recorded in multiple cities and premiering Tuesday.
He said he was “genuinely dismayed” by what he called “self-censorship driven by fear,” adding that his lecture explores “the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites” in academia, business, and media.
Bregman framed the dispute as a test of whether big institutions will “bend the knee to authoritarianism,” while stressing his respect for BBC journalists.
The new twist comes as the BBC resists a threatened defamation suit over a Panorama program that Trump’s team warns could reach $5 billion.
Trump has also gone after U.S. broadcasters on multiple occasions, including suing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos over an erroneous on-air claim the president had been found liable for “rape.” The case survived an early dismissal bid and ended with ABC agreeing in December 2024 to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library, $1 million in legal fees, and issue a public apology.
In July, CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Previously, the president filed a $475 million “Big Lie” defamation suit against CNN over coverage likening his election falsehoods to authoritarian propaganda. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2023, and an 11th Circuit panel affirmed that decision two years later.
The Reith Lectures air globally via the BBC World Service, which has a substantial U.S. audience.
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