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Martin Bashir PA Images

Martin Bashir: 'I never wanted to harm Diana and I don’t believe we did'

The journalist’s reputation is in tatters following a report that he used “deceitful behaviour” to land his world exclusive 1995 interview.

MARTIN BASHIR HAS said he “never wanted to harm” Diana, Princess of Wales, with the Panorama interview, adding: “I don’t believe we did.”

The journalist’s reputation is in tatters following Lord Dyson’s report that he used “deceitful behaviour” to land his world exclusive 1995 interview.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Bashir maintained Diana was never unhappy about the content of the interview and said they continued to be friends after the broadcast, with the princess even visiting his wife Deborah at St George’s hospital in Tooting, south London, on the day Deborah gave birth to the couple’s third child, Eliza.

He told the newspaper: “I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don’t believe we did.

“Everything we did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents … My family and I loved her.”

He said he is “deeply sorry” to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, but disputes William’s charge that he fuelled her isolation and paranoia.

He said: “Even in the early 1990s, there were stories and secretly recorded phone calls. I wasn’t the source of any of that.”

Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has said he “draws a line” between the interview and his sister’s death, claiming Bashir’s actions led her to give up her royal security detail.

Bashir, who left the BBC last week due to ill health, said: “I don’t feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions.

“I can understand the motivation [of Earl Spencer’s comments] but to channel the tragedy, the difficult relationship between the royal family and the media purely on to my shoulders feels a little unreasonable … The suggestion I am singularly responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair.”

False documents 

Bashir commissioned documents purporting to show payments into the bank accounts of members of the royal household and showed them to Earl Spencer, according to Dyson.

He said: “Obviously I regret it, it was wrong. But it had no bearing on anything. It had no bearing on [Diana], it had no bearing on the interview.”

He said he is now concerned the scandal will overshadow the content of what Diana said in the interview.

“She was a pioneering princess. When you think about her expressions of grief in her marriage, when you think about the admission of psychiatric illness – just extraordinary! And her sons have gone on to champion mental health,” he said.

“I don’t understand what the purpose of this is ultimately? OK, maybe you want to destroy me, but outside of this, what’s the point?

“I did something wrong … but for pity’s sake, acknowledge something of the relationship we had and something of what she contributed through that interview.

“One of the saddest things about all of this has been the way the content of what she said has almost been ignored.”

Bashir’s comments come after former BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall quit as chairman of the National Gallery after he was heavily criticised in the Dyson report for his botched inquiry into how the interview was obtained.

His resignation comes after another former BBC executive involved in the 1996 internal investigation, Tim Suter, announced on Friday that he was stepping down from his board role with media watchdog Ofcom.

Earl Spencer is reported to have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick asking her to investigate the BBC.

The chairman of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Julian Knight, has called on current director-general Tim Davie to provide a full explanation as to how Bashir came to be re-employed.

Knight said that some people may suspect that the journalist was given the religion job as a way of keeping quiet about what exactly he knew.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the BBC should now consider paying compensation to “whistleblowers” who had had their careers damaged after raising concerns about the way Bashir had operated.

Knight said there was a need for further reform at the BBC, and he called for a strengthening of editorial policy within the corporation.

Davie wrote to BBC staff on Friday saying: “I know that we now have significantly stronger processes and governance in place to ensure that an event like this doesn’t happen again. However we must also learn lessons and keep improving.”

Scotland Yard has already said that it will assess Dyson’s findings to determine whether they contain any “significant new evidence”.

Hall, who in 1996 was director of BBC news and current affairs, led the investigation which exonerated Bashir, even though he had previously admitted lying about the fake documents he used in obtaining the interview.

He was director-general when Bashir was controversially rehired by the BBC as religious affairs correspondent in 2016 and later promoted to religion editor.

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    Mute Onlyblowingsmoke
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    May 12th 2014, 11:13 AM

    These ads are ridiculous. The journal is riddled with them. Every time I reopen the app some weird ad pops up. The independent is worse again. To quote the late Bill Hicks… The United states of advertising.. Seems to be spreading anywhere and everywhere. The Internet is becoming a bit of a joke. I await the day I see an ad for the kitchen sink and all.

    68
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    Mute Rick Grimes
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    May 12th 2014, 11:20 AM

    Just install Adblock, problem solved.

    61
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    Mute Onlyblowingsmoke
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    May 12th 2014, 11:24 AM

    Even on iPhone? Even installing Adblock doesnt prevent sites from tracking your data, location as Internet habits. Making it easier for Internet providers to target you with pre packed advertisements .

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    Mute Rick Grimes
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    May 12th 2014, 11:26 AM

    Well on my android, I have Adaway. It’s not on the store so just google it. It might be different for iphone, not sure. It’s a life saver. Being flooded with gaudy, tacky ads is bloody disgusting

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    Mute Simon
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    May 12th 2014, 11:30 AM

    Try disconnect.me or light beam to stop sites tracking you in Firefox.

    12
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    Mute ipsum oleum
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    May 12th 2014, 11:31 AM

    NoScript, which works well on Firefox is now out for Android but I have not yet tried it on my tablet, will do so asp and report back :-)

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    Mute Chief
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    May 12th 2014, 11:33 AM

    What’s the problem with a free site displaying ads? This is how sites survive and how a large number of people are employed. Do any of you work for free? The less revenue a website makes the worse it gets. If you enjoy the journal why kill its source of income?

    49
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    Mute Onlyblowingsmoke
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    May 12th 2014, 11:33 AM

    Always glad when issues are actually resolved on the journal rather than just resorting to the same old crap. Cheers guys will look into alternatives!

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    Mute Rick Grimes
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    May 12th 2014, 11:35 AM

    I suppose it is important to note that the site will not get revenue from people who block ads, so if there is a site that you really like, guy might want to consider disabling adblock so you can support the site

    15
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    Mute Archtographer
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    May 12th 2014, 11:45 AM

    To be honest for a long time Mozilla have been providing a good open source browser for free, its only a few ads get over it. It would be a different story if we had to pay for the browser.

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    Mute Conn Rogers
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    May 12th 2014, 11:50 AM

    Well said, Chief and Rick… It’s getting ridiculous now how much everybody wants everything for nothing.
    “Gimme all my music, movies and online services for free and so help me if I have to look at an ad anywhere! I don’t care who invented/created/wrote/directed/performed this piece of work. I’m not paying for it.”
    Unbelievable.
    When Radiohead brought out their album “In Rainbows” and said people could decide themselves however much they wanted to pay for it; I thought it was such a cool idea and so worthy of support that I paid €10 for the 10 tracks. I still say that’s the best tenner I ever spent and I’ve never downloaded anything illegally since then.
    Artists/Writers/Coders/Everybody deserves to be paid for their work if other people get use out of it. Somebody has to pay. If you won’t, then at least let them earn something through advertising; which, as annoying as it can be, is the only reason most of the internet is free to use

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    Mute Byyys
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    May 12th 2014, 1:38 PM

    I don’t ever see ads on youtube, facebook, thejournal or other website. being using adblock plus for a good while.(google even payed off the coders so they wouldnt blocked google ads) my smartphone however is riddled with ads haven’t really looked into how to stop them. it does made me giggle seeing an Advert for Donedeal pop up when opening thejounral app seeing as Adverts.ie is owned by distilled media wouldn’t you think that would be advertised first on its sister websites and not donedeal?

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    Mute Chief
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    May 12th 2014, 2:00 PM

    They do advertise here, and Google doesn’t pay off coders. They allow adblocker on chrome, the news avast comes with adblocker turned on by default have Google done anything to stop that? Nope.

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    Mute Byyys
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    May 12th 2014, 2:03 PM

    @Chief before you say google dosent pay off codes… at least do a google search first to back up what you are saying!. http://www.businessinsider.com/google-saved-an-estimated-887-million-by-paying-adblock-plus-to-show-its-ads-2013-8

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    Mute Chief
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    May 12th 2014, 2:13 PM

    That’s not paying them off. What they did was pay to be on their whitelist as loads of other advertisers have also done.

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    Mute Ian Booth
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    May 12th 2014, 2:46 PM

    Ads pay for stuff. That’s where the internet gets it’s money. We get so much free stuff online, because ads pay for it.
    People need to stop getting so worried about ads. Jeez.

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    Mute Rick Grimes
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    May 12th 2014, 11:08 AM

    Those of us with Adblock won’t be seeing any ads thank flying spaghetti monster

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    May 12th 2014, 11:24 AM

    Ramen

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    Mute Ashling Fenton
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    May 12th 2014, 11:04 AM

    I say no to that

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    Mute Mick Collins
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    May 12th 2014, 11:05 AM

    Ah lads, don’t mess with my favourite browser and force me to go back to the snails pace Internet Explorer.

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    Mute Jimbo
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    May 12th 2014, 11:05 AM

    I’m going to experiment with google chrome then.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    May 12th 2014, 11:25 AM

    They should fix the constantly freakin crashing shockwave problem first

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    Mute Gerard Casserly
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    May 12th 2014, 11:23 AM

    Bye bye Mozilla.

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    Mute John Needham
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    May 12th 2014, 12:05 PM

    Mozilla employs over a thousand people, nearly all of its income comes from a deal with Google (90+ %) which expires this year, Google has a competing browser.

    It only makes sense for them to explore alternative revenue models to secure their future, its important to the web that we have options for browsers, and if they are (truly) open source all the better. I really don’t see the problem with them doing this.

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    Mute Charlie Mountney
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    May 12th 2014, 11:53 AM

    If the ads annoy you but there is awareness that the server or site needs revenue in order to continue then instead of blocking the ads or doing nothing and continuing to be irritated then why not take up mindfulness or look at other ways you can change your life so these intrusions no longer get to you. This will affect other areas in your life and perhaps improve it immensely. It is a lot easier to change yourself and then the world will change for you. It’s only perspective. Just a thought.

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    Mute Keith Wizzy
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    May 12th 2014, 11:40 AM

    Plenty of other apps to replace it so :)

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    Mute James Troy
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    May 12th 2014, 1:34 PM

    Edit the hosts file and no ads at all

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    Mute Brendan Rice
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    May 12th 2014, 1:46 PM

    Yes haven’t seen an advert in years.

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    Mute Darragh Hammond
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    May 12th 2014, 2:33 PM

    Firefox goes corporate- RIP open source browser

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    May 12th 2014, 11:43 AM

    I wonder if they will accept ads from the Iona Institute?

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    Mute Darren Stephenson
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    May 12th 2014, 1:04 PM

    It’ll be easy to avoid these ads thankfully :). If, like me, you want to default a web page when opening a tab -instead of those 8 boxes- just type about:config in the location bar. Go down to browser.newtab.url and make the value beside it your website (www.google.ie) Job done, no ads :)

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    Mute SJ_IRL
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    May 12th 2014, 3:50 PM

    Just when I was going to swap over too, less work for me then.

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