I Should've Sacked Bashir

Ex-BBC boss Lord Hall says ‘tears of regret’ saved Diana interviewer’s job

- Nicola Methven

EX-BBC director general Lord Hall said he should have sacked Martin Bashir over his behaviour in the run-up to his 1995 Diana interview.

He told a committee of MPs: “We trusted him and clearly shouldn’t have.”

At the time, Lord Hall investigated Bashir’s faking of bank documents over questions about whether the reporter had used them to secure the scoop.

Asked about Bashir’s conduct and subsequent re-hiring by the BBC, Lord Hall said the journalist had ended up “contrite and in tears” when he had “quizzed him really, really hard”.