21 May 2021 - Dyson Report criticises BBC over 'deceitful' Diana interview
Martin Bashir: Inquiry criticises BBC over 'deceitful' Diana interview
Francesca Gillett (BBC News, 21/05/2021)
The BBC fell short of "high standards of integrity and transparency" over Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana, an inquiry has found.
Bashir acted in a "deceitful" way and faked documents to obtain the interview, the inquiry said.
And the BBC's own internal probe in 1996 into what happened was "woefully ineffective", it added.
The Guardian view on the Diana inquiry: a piercing exposé
Editorial (The Guardian, 21/05/2021)
The BBC, the media, and even the Britain described in Lord Dyson’s report on Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, may seem in some respects to belong to a bygone era. Most of those involved have departed the public stage, while the princess herself has been dead for nearly a quarter of a century. No one under 30 is likely to have a direct memory of a broadcast that took place when online journalism barely existed. Yet no one who watched the interview will have forgotten it, the explosive impact it made, or the sense that the BBC had pulled off a journalistic coup that left the entire media at home and abroad green with envy.
Lord Dyson’s report is a quietly piercing exposé of the journalistic skulduggery and editorial shortcomings that lay behind this sensational event. The retired senior judge was asked to investigate because Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, made a series of accusations last year about how Mr Bashir, who was relatively unknown at the time and not a senior interviewer, secured the scoop, and about the BBC’s failure to probe his methods adequately. Lord Dyson has pieced the story together more authoritatively than the BBC ever did at the time, or since. As a result, Earl Spencer’s case has been vindicated.
BBC will be hit hard by revelations of how Bashir secured Diana 'scoop' - and the damage will be tough to repair
Rhiannon Mills (Sky News, 21/05/2021)
At the time, the world couldn’t get enough of Princess Diana.
Everyone wanted that interview, and her decision to open up only fuelled further the demand to know more about her private life.
Only now, 26 years on, the build-up and the tactics used to encourage her to talk have been uncovered.
Prince William Statement Following Lord Dyson Report
Youtube (The Royal Family Channel, 20/05/2021)
Prince William has issued a statement following a report’s findings into Martin Bashir's explosive 1995 Panorama interview with his mother, Princess Diana. The Duke of Cambridge said: “It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.”. Report by Iain Jones.