The BBC has been rocked by the result of an inquiry led by Lord Dyson over the highly controversial Martin Bashir interview with Princess Dianna in 1995.
The BBC and Bashir have since apologised to both Prince William and Harry over their “deceitful” behaviour and launched a full review into their editorial and professional standards.
Broadcast on BBC One in November 1995, the ‘interview of the century’, was watched by 20 million people and was seen to be a huge exclusive story for the broadcasting company. Diana famously told Bashir that there were “three of us in the marriage”, referring to Camilla Parker Bowles, who is now the wife of Charles, Prince of Wales.
The inquiry found that the BBC were guilty of falling short of the “high standards of integrity and transparency” after it was revealed that Bashir falsified documents in order to obtain the interview.
Moreover, the inquiry exposed that Bashir blatantly breached BBC rules by producing fake bank statements to gain access to Diana. This access was enough for Bashir to gain the confidence of Diana to agree to an interview.
Unsurprisingly, the interview gained huge media traction at the time and as this increased the inquiry learned that the BBC covered up what they had discovered regarding Bashir’s misconduct.
The inquiries findings give merit to William and Harry’s mistrust of the media. Not so long ago, Harry, Duke of Sussex gave an interview of a similar explosive nature to Oprah in which he launched a scathing attack on the British media and claimed that the UK press were “destroying my mental health”.
William’s response was equally damaging to the reputation of the BBC. Describing Bashir as a “rogue reporter”, William has said the interview “hurt countless others” and has asked for the interview to never be aired again.
Bashir stepped down from the BBC on health grounds in May of this year and is one of the most well-known journalists in the UK. In an illustrious broadcasting career, Bashir also made headlines in 2003 after an interview with the late singer Michael Jackson. Jackson’s family, in light of these findings, have since called for a fresh investigation into the legitimacy of the interview.
What many find most concerning is the sheer lack of care the BBC had towards Diana and her family in what must have been a traumatic time for her and those close to her. Having been separated from Charles for some three years prior to the interview, Diana had somewhat less protection from those within the Royal household. This protection should have been at Diana’s aid and would have safeguarded her from Bashir’s advances.
It is anyone’s guess how the BBC tries to recover from this. The inquiry has exposed a series of failings on professional, editorial and, perhaps most importantly, moral grounds. William and Harry have been left feeling betrayed by their own national broadcaster and their trust in the media is almost non-existent. The same can be said for the general public. In an age of intense media scrutiny, perhaps the scrutiny needs to be placed more on the corporations which distribute the news. Public trust in the media has collapsed and many find it unacceptable for a national broadcast service, particularly that of the high-standing and regard of the BBC, to so blatantly “cover up” deceit and forgery of this nature.
What the UK needs, now more than ever, is a trustworthy media, free from political and personal affiliation to deliver the needs of the people. If balance is introduced and bias removed from our media, then perhaps this inquiry has a silver lining. All those involved in the UK press should strive for this and the effort must start now, and after this inquiry, the effort must be led by the BBC.
Facts • Balance • Context
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cloudflare | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFlare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
Cloudflare Always Online | This cookie is set by the provider Cloudflare content delivery network. This cookie is used for determining whether it should continue serving "Always Online" until the cookie expires. | |
Cookie Consent | 1 year | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Login Paywall | 1 month | This cookie keeps track on whether the user is logged in and can view content. |
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics: Persistence | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to persist session state. |
Stripe M | 2 years | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
Stripe MID | 1 year | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Stripe SID | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It is used by the Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | This cookie is used for load balancing services provded by Amazon inorder to optimize the user experience. Amazon has updated the ALB and CLB so that customers can continue to use the CORS request with stickness. It is used by Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google NID | 6 months | NID cookie is a third party cookie automatically placed by Google services. To opt-out please visit https://adssettings.google.co.uk |
These cookies are used by the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. They only store whether the user has opted in or out of other categories. They do not store any personal data.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cookie Consent: Analytics | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Necessary | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Necessary". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Others | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Others". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Performance | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. |