Documents for alleged BBC cover-up of Diana interview to be passed on

Documents detailing alleged BBC cover-up over Princess Diana’s interview with Martin Bashir ‘will be passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions’, judges are told

• The broadcaster is accused of failing to release material relating to the scandal 

Documents detailing an alleged cover-up at the BBC over the Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana are to be passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions, judges heard yesterday.

A legal tribunal heard claims that a ‘cell’ of BBC managers had deliberately continued a 25-year cover-up over how the Panorama journalist secured his notorious interview with Diana.

Filmmaker Andy Webb told the tribunal his Freedom of Information Act requests to the corporation had been blocked, and questioned if the broadcaster had committed any criminal offence.

He said an unnamed MP had agreed to forward papers to the Director of Public Prosecutions. 

Documents detailing an alleged cover-up at the BBC over the Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana are to be passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions 

Martin Bashir (pictured) faked bank statements and showed them to Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, to gain access to her in 1995

READ MORE: Documentary maker accuses BBC of ‘cover-ups and lies’ over Martin Bashir’s interview with Princess Diana

In submissions to the first tier information rights tribunal, which rules on FOI disputes, he said: ‘Has the BBC committed a criminal offence of concealment?’ The BBC apologised for mishandling his FOI request, but said it was done in ‘good faith’, and denied it had acted illegally.

Mr Webb has accused the BBC of failing to release internal emails relating to how it handled the scandal over its Panorama interview with Diana, in which she told Bashir there had been ‘three people’ in her marriage.

A report by former Supreme Court judge Lord Dyson has previously found that the journalist produced forged bank statements to win the trust of Diana and her brother, Earl Spencer, and the BBC later covered up what it knew of his activities.

The tribunal heard the BBC had now agreed that Mr Webb should see a sample of the documents he had requested.

The case continues.

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