The BBC also said it would return the many awards that Martin Bashir’s interview won. “We do not believe it is acceptable to retain these awards because of how the interview was obtained”.
## In an article published on its website, the BBC stated that the interview, which had Diana candidly recall her negative experiences with the royal family and open up about Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, “fell far short of what audiences have a right to expect.”
(This is the interview where Diana shared her bombshell quote: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”) The BBC also offered a “full and unconditional apology” for airing and publicizing the interview, which occurred on its Panorama program. In a statement to the BBC, Bashir said he was still “immensely proud” of how he handled Diana’s story. -- Vulture.com
(as reported by AFP)
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Thursday made a “full and unconditional apology” after an independent report found that journalist Martin Bashir used “deception” to secure an explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana.
“The indirect and real target of Mr Bashir's deceptions was Princess Diana,” wrote retired senior judge John Dyson following a six-month investigation.
Dyson said he was “satisfied” that Bashir showed fake bank statements to Diana's brother Earl Spencer “so as to deceive Earl Spencer and induce him to arrange the meeting with Princess Diana.”
“Mr Bashir acted inappropriately and in serious breach” of the BBC guidelines, Dyson added.
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| Nov 14, 1992 Princess Diana in Paris : AFP snap |
BBC Director-General Tim Davie accepted that “the process for securing the interview fell far short of what audiences have a right to expect.
“The BBC should have made greater effort to get to the bottom of what happened at the time and been more transparent about what it knew,” he said.
“While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today.”
Dyson also took aim at a 1996 BBC investigation into the claims by future BBC chief Tony Hall and another senior BBC figure, Anne Sloman, that cleared Bashir of wrong-doing.
“The investigation conducted by Lord Hall and Mrs Sloman was flawed and woefully ineffective,” said Dyson.
Hall admitted that the probe “fell well short of what was required” and that he was “wrong to give Martin Bashir the benefit of the doubt”.
(As reported by The Guardian)
Martin Bashir commissioned fake bank statements and used “deceitful behaviour” in a “serious breach” of the BBC’s producer guidelines to secure his Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, an official inquiry has concluded.
The investigation, conducted by the former supreme court judge John Dyson, found that the “BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark” including a cover-up in an investigation into Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview carried out at the time.
Lord Dyson was highly critical of the 1996 investigation by the former director general Tony Hall, who was then the head of BBC News, calling it “flawed and woefully ineffective”.
The BBC’s current director general, Tim Davie, said the corporation accepted “in full” the finding of Dyson’s report.
Dyson, the former master of the rolls and head of civil justice, was appointed to look into the circumstances surrounding the 1995 interview, during which Diana famously spoke about her “crowded marriage”.
While today’s BBC has significantly better processes and procedures, those that existed at the time should have prevented the interview being secured in this way. The BBC should have made greater effort to get to the bottom of what happened at the time and been more transparent about what it knew.
“While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today.”
Ahead of the publication, Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, shared a black and white family photograph of himself and Diana as children. He tweeted the image alongside the words: “Some bonds go back a very long way.”
The picture shows the siblings sitting side by side in the summer sun, with a young Charles wearing trunks and Diana appearing to be in a swimsuit.
I’d like to thank the TV journalist Andy Webb for his tireless professionalism in bringing the Bashir-Panorama-BBC scandal to light. If he hadn’t have pursued this story for well over a decade, and shared his findings with me last October, today’s findings wouldn’t have surfaced, - tweeted historian Charles Spencer.
Bashir is fluent in English and Urdu.He converted from Islam to Christianity in his late teens after attending a church in south London, He reportedly used to visit Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.
He came to prominence on British television with his BBC interview with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995 and then his fly-on-the-wall documentary with pop singer Michael Jackson on ITV.
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