Martin Bashir says that “he never wanted to hurt” Princess Diana in his interview with 1995 with the BBC’s Panorama program, adding: “I don’t think we would.”
The former BBC journalist acted in a “misleading” manner and falsified documents to obtain the interview with the Princess of Wales, an independent investigation concluded.
In statements to the British newspaper Sunday Times , Bashir said he was “deeply sorry” with Diana’s children, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Sussex, William and Harry.
However, he rejected Prince William’s claim that he fueled the princess’s paranoia , and assures that they were close and that he “loved her.”
Bashir told the newspaper that even in the early 90, there were stories and secret phone calls recorded and that he “was not the source of any of that.”
The journalist said that Princess Diana was never dissatisfied with the content of the interview and that remained friends or s after the broadcast of the program.
The princess even visited his wife in a south London hospital on the day she gave birth to the couple’s third child, Bashir said.
We did about the interview, it was what she wanted, from when she wanted to alert Palacio, to when it was broadcast and its content, ”she told the newspaper.
Regarding showing Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, falsified bank statements states: “Obviously sorry, it was wrong. But it had nothing to do with it. Had no influence on Diana n i in the interview“.
“A broken man”
Sunday Times reporter Rosamund Urwin, who met Bashir in person for the interview, said he seemed a broken man, but added that he could tell he was a good actor.
He told the BBC’s Sunday Breakfast radio show: “I felt he was not as sorry as he could be in that circumstance. , always looking for an excuse instead of an apology seems problematic to me. ”
On Thursday, the independent report of the judge pensioner John Dyson found Bashir to be unreliable and dishonest, and that the BBC did not meet its high standards when answering questions about the interview.
It also revealed that Bashir seriously violated the broadcaster’s rules by issuing false documents, which showed Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, to obtain the interview.
Dyson also criticized the BBC’s internal investigation in 1996, which spared Bashir and BBC News from irregularities, such as “woefully ineffective” and on Saturday Tony Hall, who had led that investigation as head of BBC News, resigned as president of the National Gallery, London’s premier art museum.
Hall se turned direct r general when the BBC rehired Bashir as a religious affairs correspondent at 2016, and was later promoted to religion editor.
“Petty journalism”
Bashir left the BBC without compensation earlier this month, citing health problems.
Chairman of the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Digital Sport – of the British House of Commons – Julian Knight , asked the current director general of BBC Tim Davie to explain how Bashir got rehired at 2016.
Knight told the BBC’s Today program that further reforms and strengthening of editorial policy within the corporation are needed.
On Sunday he said on the BBC Breakfast program: “We need to be sure that the procedures are known, that the editorial policy is respected and that it has a voice. strong enough on the BBC that in the future we have no chance that this journalism petty be repeated. ”
The BBC has defended the rehire of Bashir, saying that he took the position after a competitive process of interviews .
The interview was a great first for the BBC. In it, the famous princess said: “We were three in this marriage” .
Earlier this week, Charles Spencer told the show BBC panorama that draws “ a line” between the death of her sister and her encounter with Bashir.
The princess died in 1997 , after the car in which it is was crashed in the tunnel of the Bridge of the Soul, in Paris.
Bashir told the Sunday Times : “I can understand the motivation , but to channel the tragedy, the difficult relationship between the Royal Family and the media only on my shoulders is unreasonable. Suggesting that I am solely responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair “.
When asked if He was able to forgive himself, apparently he said: “That is a very difficult question because was a serious mistake . I hope people give me the opportunity to show that I am duly sorry for what happened. ”
Spencer asked the London Metropolitan Police to investigate the BBC.
Earlier this week, the police force said it would evaluate former Judge Dyson’s report “to make sure there is no significant new evidence,” after previously ruling against a criminal investigation.
What did the investigation conclude?
Lord Dyson concluded that:
- Bashir falsified documents (bank statements designed to suggest that Princess Diana was under surveillance) to gain trust his brother Earl Charles Spencer and gain access to the princess.
- s media in the interview, the BBC covered up what it knew about how Bashir obtained the interview.
- The internal investigation of 1996, directed by then BBC News director Tony Hall, on the initial complaints was “woefully ineffective.”
- A note written by Diana said she did not regret the transmission and Bashir did not show her the forged documents. The BBC took this as evidence that the forgery did not influence her decision to be interviewed, but the investigation said that the BBC should have considered the possibility that the documents had been shown to Charles Spencer to influence his sister.
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