London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Sep 13, 2025

BBC skewered by Parliament committee for failure to fire journalist behind infamous Princess Diana interview & then REHIRING him

BBC skewered by Parliament committee for failure to fire journalist behind infamous Princess Diana interview & then REHIRING him

Past and present leadership of the BBC came under fire from British lawmakers for a “failure of morality” over their handling of the Princess Diana interview scandal and the “sham” rehiring of tainted journalist Martin Bashir.

During a four-hour grilling by the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee on Tuesday, the broadcaster’s former director generals, Tony Hall and John Birt, were criticised for their actions in “one of the biggest crimes in the history of broadcasting.”

In the infamous 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Bashir, Diana remarked that there were “three of us” in her marriage with Prince Charles. Last month, Prince William accused the BBC of “looking the other way” after the interview worsened his mother’s sense of “fear, paranoia and isolation.”

Those comments came in the wake of a damning independent inquiry that found Bashir to have secured the interview – dubbed the “scoop of the century” – under false pretenses after “deceiving and inducing” Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, to gain access.

Branding Bashir a “serial liar” and “confidence trickster,” Birt, the director general at the time of the interview, told the committee it was “probably a one-in-a-hundred-year occurrence of having a rogue reporter who is willing to be deceitful on this scale.”

After MP for Winchester Steve Brine claimed the interview had “sparked a train of events” that ended with Diana’s death two years later, Birt said it was a “complete embarrassment” that “absolute horror story” occurred, but added that no one could “truly speculate and understand what the consequences were.”

Earlier, the committee questioned Hall – the BBC’s news and current affairs head at the time of the interview – over a “missing memo” from 1996 that had been unearthed during the inquiry but was conspicuously absent from the BBC’s own files.

The explosive memo, written by a former corporation executive and sent to Hall in March of that year, revealed how Bashir had lied three times during an internal investigation – before confessing that he had shown forged bank statements to Spencer.

But Hall said he could not remember the document and denied MP John Nicolson’s query as to whether he had destroyed a key piece of evidence that proved the BBC was aware of Bashir’s lies.

In April 1996, Hall concluded the investigation by describing Bashir as an “honest and honourable” man who had made a mistake. But on Tuesday, he walked back those remarks, telling the committee Bashir “took us all in with his lies” and that it was a “wrong judgement” in hindsight to not have fired him.

Despite this, Bashir was rehired as a religious affairs correspondent in 2016 when Hall was director general. The committee accused Hall of perpetrating a “complete charade” in bringing a “known liar” back into the fold.

On Monday, an internal inquiry at the BBC – labelled by the DCMS committee as a “whitewash” – cleared it of any wrongdoing and noted that Bashir was selected because his “knowledge and experience were considered to be the best match to the requirements for the role at that time.”

“This was a sham, plain and simple. Many people knew he was a proven liar, yet they fixed it for him to get a job and later be promoted,” DCMS chairman MP Julian Knight said.


Meanwhile, the current BBC director general, Tim Davie, rejected accusations that he had attempted a “cover-up” after Spencer went public about the extent of Bashir’s scheming last year and said Davie’s response to his attempts to offer evidence was “the final straw.”

The BBC twice rebuffed detailed evidence about Bashir’s actions before spending £1.4 million on the inquiry, which concluded that Hall’s investigation had been “woefully ineffective.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
Pig Heads Left Outside Multiple Paris Mosques in Outrage-Inducing Acts
Nvidia’s ‘Wow’ Factor Is Fading. The AI chip giant used to beat Wall Street expectations for earnings by a substantial margin. That trajectory is coming down to earth.
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
On the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Prince Harry Returns to Britain
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
×