New Delhi: The BBC’s board of directors has approved the appointment of Lord Dyson, one of UK’s senior-most retired judges, to lead an independent investigation into the circumstances around a controversial television interview with Princess Diana in 1995.
In the interview, watched by nearly 23 million people, the princess talks about her struggle with depression and her troubled marriage to Prince Charles. Princess Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996 and she died in a car crash in Paris the following year.
In a statement Wednesday, Prince William, the elder son of Princess Diana, said, “The independent investigation is a step in the right direction.”
The BBC’s announcement Wednesday came weeks after the princess’ brother, Charles Spencer, accused the broadcaster of “sheer dishonesty” in trying to gain trust and access to his sister.
He also alleged that BBC journalist Martin Bashir had used forged bank statements and made false and defamatory claims about senior royals to convince her for the interview. Spencer claimed that Diana’s phone was bugged and her aides were spying on her.
Bashir, a BBC News religion editor, recently underwent heart surgery and suffered complications from Covid-19. He has been unable to comment on Spencer’s allegations, said the public service broadcaster.
The BBC’s Director General Tim Davie Wednesday said that the broadcaster was committed “to get to the truth” about the allegations.
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‘Forged documents not used to gain interview’
Last week, the BBC had claimed to have found a previously missing handwritten note from Princess Diana which is believed to indicate that she was happy with the way the interview was conducted. While the BBC has apologised for the alleged faked statements, it also said they did not figure in the note from the princess.
In 1996, the broadcaster had held an internal investigation into allegations on how Bashir landed the interview after a BBC graphics designer said that Bashir had asked him to produce fake bank statements.
The inquiry cleared Bashir of any misconduct, and found that while the journalist had commissioned the documents, he eventually discarded them because he could not substantiate the information they contained.
“It wasn’t a very good idea to have these documents made, and Mr Bashir accepts that. But we have confirmed that in no way were the documents used to gain the interview with Princess Diana,” a BBC spokesman had said at the time.
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