The BBC’s Bashir tricked Princess Diana into the interview

An independent one consultation finds that the BBC has “failed to meet high standards of integrity and transparency” and that journalist Martin Bashir has acted “fraudulently” to ensure his safety explosive 1995 interview With Princess Diana.

The famous Panorama conversation it was the first time a member of the royal family had spoken loosely about his life and Diana had not held anything back from him.

He said the royal life had led to bulimia and self-harm and that no one in the royal family had helped him, dismissing his behavior and saying it was “unstable”. James Hewitt admitted that he had a relationship with his equestrian teacher. Her estranged husband, Prince Charles Prince, spoke of his long-standing affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, famously saying, “There were three of us at this wedding, so it was crowded.”

Charles questioned her ability to be king and questioned whether she would be the queen of the country, saying “she would like to be the queen of people’s hearts.”

The result of the conversation, which was seen by more than 20 million people, was seismic. It guaranteed Diana’s place in the eyes of the world as the evil victim of a senseless monarchy torpedoed public opinion of the royal family, especially that of Charles. And, as soon as she took off, the queen ordered Charles and Diana, who have been in divorce proceedings for more than two years, to formally file for divorce.

But go ahead November 2, 2020, just weeks before the interview’s 25th anniversary, the Daily Mail newspaper published a letter from Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, 9. Earl Spencer, accusing the BBC of “pure dishonesty” and unethical maneuvers behind the scenes to secure the interview.

Following public statements, the BBC launched an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the interview.

According to the investigation, the findings were published on Thursday when Bashir “tricked” Earlen Spencer into using false information to get an introduction to his royal sister, which he then used to agree to an interview. Then, when that information came to light, the BBC “covered how the investigations were covered [Bashir] he ensured the dialogue and the adequacy of the methods he used. “

In an effort to gain Earl Spencer’s trust, Bashir commissioned an unwanted BBC graphic artist to create bank documents to create bank documents that showed his former employee was paid by a group of newspapers. According to the report, Bashir created additional bank documents to show that he was paying the same group of newspapers as Diana’s two main current assistants (the conclusion is that the payments were in exchange for selling private information to the tabloids). After a meeting where Bashir showed these documents to Earl Spencer, the journalist introduced him to his royal sister.

“By gaining access to Princess Diana, Mr. Bashir was able to convince her to agree to the interview,” wrote Lord Dyson, the former judge who conducted the investigation.

Shortly after the interview was first opened, the graphic designer who made the fake documents approached BBC executives worried about how they might be used, according to one. Guardian story Published April 8, 1996 – After the day Mail on Sunday he reported the existence of forged documents and accused the BBC of carrying out a “hidden and deceptive secret exercise” to secure the interview.

The BBC at the time conducted an internal investigation into Bashir and Panorama, was used to agree to an interview with the princess finding that the documents were “in no way”.

But in his report, Lord Dyson describe Because the BBC’s internal consultation is “incredibly effective”. Bashir, he said, repeatedly lied to his bosses about the situation in which he got the interview and, among many other things, the BBC did not interview Earl Spencer, but “accepted the account given by Mr Bashir as true”.

“I am pleased that the BBC covered them in the press newspapers because Bashir was able to find out how he ensured the interview,” Lord Dyson said.

The conversation itself was conducted in secret; the palace’s press relations team was unaware of the recording until few people on the BBC knew of its existence Panorama the air date for the section was set. ( BBC chair at the time, Marmaduke Hussey was “very happy” that network directors had not informed him of the program.)

The timing of the interview was also significant. In his biography Queen Elizabeth: The Life of a Modern King, Historian Sally Bedell Smith writes that Diana waited “quite deliberately” to appear at the palace until Prince Charles’ birthday on November 14 Panorama – and the same interview was given on November 20, the 48th wedding anniversary of the queen and Prince Philip.

Despite making “misleading” maneuvers behind the scenes, Lord Dyson concluded that Diana, at the time she was introduced to Bashir, was “eager for the idea of ​​a TV interview” and “would surely agree with the experienced and reputable journalist she trusted in Mr. Bashir’s hands. -even without taking it. “

“Whatever reservations she had later, Princess Diana was happy with the conversation back then,” Lord Dyson said.

In one statement, Bashir, who retired from the post of BBC religious editor in the first week, apologized for falsifying documents, but stressed that “they had nothing to do with the selection that Princess Diana made to participate in the interview.” He also gave Diana a handwritten note to the investigation, stating that he “did not show or provide any documents.”[n] any information I did not know before “.

The current president of the BBC, Richard Sharp, said the corporation had accepted the report’s findings “without reservation”, and Tim Davie, the current CEO, also stated.

“While the report says Diana, the Princess of Wales, was keen on the idea of ​​an interview with the BBC, it is clear that the process of securing the interview went far beyond what the audience expected,” Davie said. “Although the current BBC has significantly better processes and procedures, those who were there at the time should have been prevented from securing the dialogue in this way.”

“While the BBC can’t turn back the clock in a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today.”

The BBC reported that the corporation has sent personal letters of apology to Diana’s sons, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, as well as Earl Spencer.

On Thursday, Earl Spencer said that if he believed his sister could still be alive, Bashir would not accept the interview if he believed that the tactics of his accusations could not trust Diana with those around her.

Bashir, he said, said it was “very good at increasing people’s anxiety” and “will save you in a difficult and dangerous world”.

“He didn’t know who to trust and in the end, when he died two years later, he was without real protection.”