Martin Bashir did use "deceitful methods" to get Lady Diana's interview in 1995
Charles Spencer had requested the opening of an investigation against Martin Bashir, who carried out the famous interview with his sister, Princess Diana, in 1995. He accuses the journalist of having manipulated the latter to obtain the interview. This would now confirm an official investigation, ordered by the BBC.
"There were three of us in this marriage," said Lady Diana in a shocking interview with the BBC in 1995. She then evoked the affair of her husband, Prince Charles, with Camilla Parker Bowles. Twenty-five years later, Charles Spencer, the brother of the "princess of hearts", returned to this interview in a missive addressed to the British channel, revealed the Daily Mail, November 2, 2020. Charles Spencer denounced the "pure dishonesty ”from the BBC, accusing one of its journalists of having manipulated him to gain access to his sister. This has since confirmed an official investigation, initiated by the British channel.
Lady Diana’s Interview https://t.co/L5MGe3BXaK
— Julian Song (@thematrixjs) March 14, 2019
The investigation has indeed established that Martin Bashir had used "deceitful methods" to obtain his interview with Lady Diana, revealed the Telegraph, Wednesday, May 19. According to the British daily, the report, which will be unveiled this Thursday, May 20 by the BBC, could create a scandal equivalent to that which led to the fall of the New of the World media. After six months of work, the investigators indeed considered that the hierarchy of Martin Bashir had, at the time, covered his actions. Conclusions that Prince William could well comment on after their official publication. The BBC announced the resignation of Martin Bashir on Friday May 14.
Falsified account statements
In his letter to the BBC, Count Charles Spencer already criticized Martin Bashir for his tendency to "sensationalism" and his lies. He notably reminded Tim Davie, the general manager of the channel, that the reporter had shown him false account statements, supposed to prove that some relatives of Diana were paid to divulge information to the secret services.
These forged documents suggested that two Royal Household employees - Patrick Jephson, Lady Diana's former private secretary, and Commander Richard Aylard - were being paid to observe the princess. The false readings were allegedly made by graphic designer Matt Wiessler, fired from the channel after this forgery. He claims to have, at the time, been duped by Martin Bashir on the real object of this operation. "I thought, almost naively, that if you worked for the BBC, you were working for the good of all, he explained in an ITV documentary, broadcast on November 9, 2020. After this episode, all these ideals flew away."
Martin Bashir would have, moreover, implied in a letter addressed to Charles Spencer that the nanny of princes Harry and William, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, had an affair with the Prince of Wales. A maneuver intended to convince the count to introduce the mother of the two heirs to him. After seeing the false documents, Charles Spencer allegedly decided to organize a meeting between Lady Diana, the journalist and himself, in September 1995, in a friend's apartment in London. If Lady Diana's brother had, at the time, warned the latter not to grant an interview to the BBC, the princess had nevertheless ended up accepting it.
A first survey in 1996
Charles Spencer had since criticized the BBC for not grasping "the gravity of the situation", and had called for an investigation into this matter. He claimed that the channel owed the public, the Earl and Lady Diana a posthumous apology for these manipulations. In an email to Tim Davie on October 23, 2020, Charles Spencer had also declared that he "would never have introduced" his sister to Martin Bashir if he had not had access to these false account statements.
"He would therefore have remained one of the thousands of journalists who hoped to have a small chance that she speaks to them, without any real prospect of that happening," he wrote, referring to the 1995 interview followed by 23 million viewers. Charles Spencer had, moreover, accused Martin Bashir of having exploited the fears of Lady Di, driven by the idea that his private conversations were recorded by the secret services.
In 1996, the BBC had already investigated the falsified account statements presented by the journalist to Charles Spencer. Martin Bashir then argued that he had shown her the documents after their meeting with Lady Diana - which the count denies. The channel had concluded that the statements of account "had not been useful" in obtaining the interview broadcast on the program "Panorama". But the publicity surrounding the 25th anniversary of the interview recently led Charles Spencer to write the famous protest letter to Tim Davie.
"The right direction" according to Prince William
The BBC's chief executive has since admitted that the account statements were false, and apologized to the princess' brother at the end of October 2020. A BBC spokesperson, however, said in a statement that the channel "would not comment. never a private correspondence ”and that, Martin Bashir having health problems - he had heart surgery and contracted Covid-19 - he would not be asked for an investigation.
The channel had, moreover, claimed to hold a handwritten note in which Lady Diana confirmed that the forged documents had "played no role in his decision to accept the interview" - note which would have disappeared, before being mysteriously found. . Before concluding: "None of this means that we will not properly investigate the various issues raised." In fact, the BBC ended up giving in to the pressure and agreed to launch a new procedure in November 2020.
"The BBC takes this matter very seriously and we want to know the truth," said Tim Davie. We are in the process of launching an independent and robust investigation. ” A decision which comes after the public statements of Lord Grade, the former president of the chain. The latter said in particular that a "very dark cloud" hovered over "BBC journalism" and its ethics.
Rarely, Prince William welcomed in a press release published on November 18, 2020 the opening of this investigation by the British channel. “This independent investigation is a step in the right direction,” he wrote. It should help establish the truth about the actions that led to the 'Panorama' interview and the resulting decisions for members of the BBC at the time. ”
