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The BBC has pledged to conduct a full independent investigation into how Martin Bashir obtained the career-defining interview with Princess Diana in 1995, following further claims that he produced false documents and used other deceptive tactics to gain the trust of his family. .
Tim Davie, CEO of the corporation, confirmed that the terms of the investigation would be released in the coming days: “The BBC is taking this very seriously and we want to get to the truth. We are in the process of commissioning a robust and independent investigation. “
The BBC has said that Bashir is currently unable to answer questions as his doctors have discharged him. He said the journalist, currently employed as the BBC’s religion editor, is recovering from quadruple heart bypass surgery, as well as having “significant complications” after contracting Covid-19 earlier in the year.
The ad follows weeks of campaigning by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, who claims that Bashir repeatedly cheated on him to gain access to royalty when her marriage to Prince Charles collapsed. The subsequent interview made headlines around the world and accelerated Bashir’s career as he won accolades for a major news scoop.
The BBC announcement comes as ITV prepares to air an interview with Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who was asked by Bashir to make a mockup of the fake bank statements that allegedly helped the journalist secure his career-defining interview.
The forged documents gave the impression that royal family associates were selling stories to newspapers, and Spencer said this and other hoaxes were the reason he introduced Bashir, then a relatively unknown Panorama journalist, to his sister. .
The matter was investigated at the time, when former BBC news chief Tony Hall cleared Bashir of wrongdoing in 1996, while telling the corporation’s board that the graphic designer who followed Bashir’s orders “will not return to work for the BBC. “
Subsequently, Wiessler left the media and now works for the bicycle design company in Devon. At the same time, Bashir continued to have 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 they had done it to be the “scapegoat” for Bashir’s actions: “I am this guy who is remembered for falsifying the document and I want to clear my name. I got a phone call from Martin Bashir and he wanted me to do him a favor and it was very urgent and very important.
“Martin asked me to come up with a couple of bank statements about people getting paid to do surveillance he needed the next day. And he said they would only be used as copies … I had never been informed in that way before. “
Wiessler said he later became concerned about what he had been asked to do. This got worse when he got home to find that his apartment had been burglarized, but only two computer disks had been taken: “I was absolutely scared … I looked through my computer files in the office and couldn’t find any of the copies of security”. he had made from the statements he had created for Martin. “
He added: “I became quite paranoid, because I thought there must be more to this statement story than I could ever dream of. Because why would this happen? Why would anyone come in? And I wasn’t getting any clear answers from anyone. I’ve never had a robbery before in my life. And I thought someone was texting me or something. “
Wiessler also recalled meeting Bashir when the story of fake bank statements was first reported 25 years ago: “… all he could think of to do was tell me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go to the media. Keep talking to us. We’re not doing anything… We didn’t do anything wrong. You have to trust us on this. ‘ I left that restaurant, knowing that I had to go to the media. Because Martin was just in this case, covering himself. “
He said the incident had affected his confidence in the corporation: “In an almost naive way, I thought that when you were working for the BBC, you were working for the good of everything. After this episode, almost all of that disappeared, and I thought that what it is really about is that the top management, producers and presenters protect themselves at all costs.
“I clearly felt that I was the one who was going to be the scapegoat for this story. All I want is for the BBC in this case to come forward and honestly apologize. Because it has had a great impact. “
