Marty Baron & Alan Rusbridger: „Consequences of President Trump’s lawsuits against media in the US and the BBC“

Conversation with Martin (Marty) Baron, Pulitzer-winning US journalist, former editor of the Washington Post, and Alan Rusbridger, British journalist, editor of Prospect magazine and former editor in chief of The Guardian.

Speakers:
Martin (Marty) Baron is a Pulitzer-winning US journalist who was editor of The Washington Post from December 31, 2012, until his retirement on February 28, 2021. He was previously editor of The Boston Globe from 2001 to 2012; during that period, the Globe’s coverage of the Boston Catholic sexual abuse scandal earned a Pulitzer Prize. In the course of his career, Baron has led newsrooms to 18 Pulitzer Prizes, including 11 awarded to the Post: four for national reporting; two for explanatory reporting; and one each for investigative reporting, criticism, feature photography, and public service.
 
Alan Rusbridger is a British journalist and editor of Prospect magazine. He is the former head of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and was the editor-in-chief of the Guardian from 1995 to 2015. He oversaw the Wikileaks coverage, the biggest leak in history. 

Moderators: Mirjana Tomic, fjum/Presseclub Concordia and Andy Kaltenbrunner, Medienhaus Wien.

Background
“US President Donald Trump has said he will take legal action against the BBC over how his speech was edited by Panorama, after the corporation apologised but refused to compensate him,” BBC states.

Trump has said he plans to sue the corporation for „anywhere between $1bn and $5bn” but has not yet filed court papers.

The US president has threatened to take legal action or took legal action against different US media organisations. Their responses were different. What is the impact of the announced legal actions on free speech and reporting?

Which consequences could legal threats against the BBC have? Are there lessons for other European media?