The British government came to the defense of the BBC on Tuesday, which is experiencing one of its worst crises after the resignation of two executives and the threat of a multi-million dollar lawsuit from Donald Trump, in a parliamentary session questioning Culture Minister Lisa Nandy on this issue.

“The BBC is not simply a broadcaster, “It is a national institution that It belongs to all of us," Nandy said. "It is by far the most widely used and trusted news source in the UK at a time when the lines are blurring between fact and opinion, between news and controversy. “It is the beacon of hope for people here and around the world.” He also noted that the broadcaster “is independent of the government,” although during this crisis, Keir Starmer's cabinet “has been working closely with the BBC.” Although he acknowledged that there were sufficiently serious issues that raised concerns, he did not name them—nor did he mention the US president—and devoted most of his speech and the rebuttals from opposition MPs to defending the role of the broadcaster and the work of the two executives who resigned.

Summary of the crisis

The BBC's most serious crisis in recent years erupted last Sunday with the resignation of its director-general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness, after an internal report was made public revealing that a speech by Donald Trump had been edited in a broadcast program last summer to make it appear as if he had explicitly called for the storming of the Capitol during the riots of January 2021.

Although the US president initially welcomed the resignations, yesterday he sent a letter to the BBC threatening to file a lawsuit for no less than one billion dollars if the broadcaster has not met three conditions by Friday afternoon: “the immediate, complete, and fair retraction of the documentary,” the broadcast of a public apology, and compensation for the damage caused.

So far,None of the three conditions have been met, and it does not seem clear that they will be.