Not ‘appropriate’ to use licence fee payer’s money to pay US president after threat to sue for up to $5bn, says Tony Hall
The BBC should not pay any money to Donald Trump, the former BBC director general Tony Hall has said.
The US president has said he plans to sue the BBC for up to $5bn (£3.8bn) despite receiving the apology he demanded over a misleading Panorama edit of his 6 January speech.
Speaking to BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Hall said the move should be blocked if Trump proceeded with his threats. “No, [it] should not happen,” he said. “I don’t think we should agree to any money being paid to Donald Trump. You’re talking about licence fee payers’ money, you’re talking about public money. It would not be appropriate.”
Hall, who stepped down as director general in 2020 after seven years in the role, called the video edit a “serious error”, and said it should have “been recognised as such much earlier in the whole process”. But he said he also worried that the “hard work, diligence and the belief in impartiality” of BBC journalists had been lost in the debate.
