Britain’s BBC is both beloved and maligned. Now it faces a $10 billion Trump lawsuit

By JILL LAWLESS and DANICA KIRKA

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion over a television documentary he claims was “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory and malicious.”

Britain’s national broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the way it edited a speech in the program, but says it will defend itself against the defamation claim.

The BBC is not the first media organization on the receiving end of a lawsuit from the president. But its position is complicated by its status as a taxpayer-funded public broadcaster and its stature as a closely scrutinized national institution.

A pioneering broadcaster

The BBC was founded in 1922 as a radio service to “inform, educate and entertain,” a mantra still central to its self-image.

It launched the world’s first regularly scheduled television service in 1936, and helped make TV a mass medium when many Britons bought a TV set specifically to watch the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

It operates 15 U.K. national and regional TV channels, several international channels, 10 national radio stations, ...