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The BBC has pledged to conduct a full independent investigation into how Martin Bashir obtained his landmark interview with Princess Diana in 1995, following new claims he produced false documents and used other tactics deceitful to gain the trust of his family.
Tim Davie, chief executive of the company, confirmed that the terms of the investigation would be announced in the coming days: “The BBC is taking this very seriously and we want to find out the truth. We are in the process of commissioning a solid and independent investigation. “
The BBC said Bashir was currently unable to answer questions as he was currently cleared by his doctors. He said the journalist, currently employed as the BBC’s religion editor, is recovering from quadruple heart bypass surgery in addition to having “significant complications” after contracting Covid-19 earlier in the day. ‘year.
The announcement follows weeks of campaigning by Diana’s brother Earl Spencer, who claims Bashir repeatedly cheated on him in order to access the royal as his marriage to Prince Charles fell apart. The interview that followed made headlines around the world and Bashir’s career was turbo-charged, as he won praise for a great journalistic scoop.
The BBC’s announcement comes as ITV prepares to broadcast an interview with Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who Bashir asked Bashir to fake the fake bank statements that allegedly helped the reporter secure his landmark interview.
The forged documents gave the impression that associates of the Royal Family were selling articles to newspapers, with Spencer claiming that this and other deceptions were the reason he introduced Bashir – then a relatively obscure Panorama reporter – to his sister.
The matter was investigated at the time, with former BBC news chief Tony Hall clearing Bashir of wrongdoing in 1996 while telling the company’s board of directors that the graphic designer who followed Bashir’s orders “will no longer work for the BBC”.
Wiessler then quit the media and now works for a bicycle design company in Devon. At the same time, Bashir had a successful journalistic career around the world, while Hall returned to the BBC as managing director.
The graphic designer told ITV documentary The Diana Interview: Revenge Of A Princess that he was made to be the “fall guy” for Bashir’s actions: “I’m that guy remembered for forging the document. and I want to delete my name. I got a phone call from Martin Bashir and he wanted me to do him a favor and it was really urgent and really important.
“Martin asked me to do some bank statements on people paid to do the monitoring he needed the next day. And he said they were just going to be used as copies… I had never been told this way before.
Wiessler said he later became concerned about what he was asked to do. It got worse when he got home and found his apartment had been broken into, but only two computer disks were taken: “I was absolutely panicked… I went through my computer files at the office and didn’t found no backups that I had made of the statements I had created for Martin.
He added, “I got pretty paranoid, because I thought there had to be more to this reporting story, than I could ever dream of. Because, why would this happen? Why would someone break in? And I wasn’t getting any clear answer from anyone. I had never broken in before in my life. And I just thought someone was texting me or something.
Wiessler also recalled meeting Bashir when the story of the fake bank statements was first reported 25 years ago: “… all he could think of doing was saying to me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go to the media. Keep talking to us. We’re not doing anything … We haven’t done anything wrong. You have to trust us on this. I walked out of this restaurant knowing I had to go to the media. Because Martin was just in that case, covering up for himself.
He said the incident had shaken his confidence in the company: “In an almost naive way, I thought that when you were working for the BBC you were working for the greater good of everything. After that episode almost all of that fell off, and I thought to myself that it was really about the upper management and the seasoned producers and presenters protecting themselves at all costs.
“I clearly felt I was the one who was going to be the fall guy in this story. All I want is the BBC, in this case, to come forward and honestly apologize. Because it had a huge impact.
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