Washington/London, 16 December (H.S.): US President Donald Trump announced on Monday his imminent initiation of a colossal defamation lawsuit against the BBC, levying accusations of egregious manipulation in a Panorama documentary that spliced his January 6, 2021, Ellipse address to fabricate an incendiary summons to Capitol violence, prompting the broadcaster's director-general Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness to resign amid impartiality upheavals.

The 33-page Florida-filed complaint, docketed in the Southern District, alleges dual counts of defamation and deceptive trade practices, pursuing $5 billion per infraction for a $10 billion aggregate, contending the network's juxtaposition of Trump's We're going to walk down to the Capitol with fight like hell—phrases sundered by nearly an hour—elided his pleas for peacefully and patriotically protest, thereby maligning him as insurrection's architect to sway the 2024 election.

Trump, decrying the edits as AI-augmented falsehoods—literally putting words in my mouth—reiterated Oval Office vows to file this afternoon or tomorrow, undeterred by BBC chairman Samir Shah's contrite epistle conceding an error of judgment that engendered a mistaken impression, though spurning pecuniary redress.

This escalation extends Trump's media vendettas—yielding multimillion settlements domestically—exploiting US libel thresholds demanding actual malice proof over UK's lapsed one-year statute, as a Trump-aligned FCC probes US airing viability amid the broadcaster's travails, including a leaked standards memo unmasking the splice.

The saga underscores perils for global outlets in polarised arenas, with Trump's cadre branding the BBC's conduct a long pattern of leftist perfidy corrosive to democratic discourse.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar