How BBC used ‘deceit’ to interview Princess Diana? All you need to know about inquiry findings

The BBC has been facing scathing criticism from the British royal family after an inquiry found that the sensational 1995 interview with Princess Diana was obtained through deceit and the broadcaster covered up the deception. Prince William, Diana’s eldest son and second-in-line to the throne, called the inquiring findings “extremely concerning”, adding that the “lurid and false claims” about the royal family played on “her [Diana’s] fears and fuelled paranoia.”

The interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, was aired as a part of the BBC documentary series ‘Panorama’ on November 20, 1995. During the interview, Diana shared details of her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, admitted to an affair, and said that there were “three of us” in her marriage, referring to Camilla Parker Bowles, whom the Prince of Wales would later marry.

It was a sensational triumph for the BBC and journalist Martin Bashir who took the interview.

In 1997, two years after the interview, Princess Diana died in a car crash alongside her partner, Dodi Fayed, and driver, Henri Paul, while being chased by paparazzi on motorcycles.

While Buckingham Palace was blindsided by the interview, Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, questioned the tactics of Bashir to win that interview. After 9th Earl Spencer went public with the allegations, the BBC last year commissioned an independent inquiry, headed by retired judge Lord Dyson.

Also Read | ‘I was afraid’: Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey discuss mental health

According to the inquiry report, Bashir had shown fake bank statements to Spencer, falsely suggesting that two senior aides were being paid to keep her under surveillance. Dyson found that Bashir used fake documents to deceive Spencer into introducing the journalist to the princes.

“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” William said in a statement after the findings of the inquiry were published on Thursday.

However, Dyson also noted that Diana was keen on the idea of a television interview and she would “probably have agreed to be interviewed by any experienced and reputable reporter in whom she had confidence even without the intervention of Mr Bashir.”

Here are some of the key findings of the inquiry:

• Bashir commissioned fake bank statements from Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who did freelance work for the BBC. The fake bank statements purported to show payments by Penfolds Consultants and News International into the bank account of a former employee of Earl Spencer.
• In September 1995, Bashir produced other bank statements to Earl Spencer which, he said, showed payments into the account of Princess Diana’s private secretary and the Prince of Wales’s private secretary. It is likely that these statements were created by Mr Bashir and contained information that he had fabricated.
• Bashir deceived and induced Spencer to arrange a meeting with Princess Diana by showing those fake documents. After gaining access to Princess Diana, Bashir was able to persuade her to agree to give the interview.
• The behaviour was in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the BBC’s Producer Guidelines on straight dealing.
• On seeing the interview on television, Wiessler, the graphic designer, immediately made the connection between the bank statements and the interview. He was concerned that he might have played a role in obtaining the interview by deception.
• Wiessler reported his concerns to the BBC and the matter was referred to Tim Gardam, then head of weekly programmes in BBC News and current affairs.
• Gardam’s internal investigation culminated in a meeting between himself and Bashir where the latter gave an account of the faking of the documents. However, Bashir claimed that he had not shown the documents “to anyone”.
• Bashir was asked to provide independent evidence that the documents had not been shown to Diana. Within a few hours, he obtained a signed note dated December 22, 1995, by the princes which supported Bashir’s claims.
• Gardam did not then know that Bashir had lied when he said that he had not shown the documents to anyone and did not consider the possibility that he secured the interview with Princess Diana indirectly by showing the documents to Earl Spencer.