THE BBC has cut criticism of Donald Trump from a prestigious lecture which it commissioned.

Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and philosopher, said the broadcaster was censoring itself “out of fear of those in power” after top-level executives intervened to edit the first of his Reith Lectures – which the BBC commissions annually in memory of its director-general, John Reith.

Bregman had wanted to include a line calling Trump “the most openly corrupt president in American history”, but the BBC cut it out.

Writing on social media on Tuesday, the Dutch author said: “This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre .

“I was told the decision came from t

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