Former BBC Director-General Lord Hall resigns from National Gallery over Princess Diana scandal
As the scandal over Martin Bashir’s infamous interview with the late Princess Diana deepens, the BBC’s former Director-General, Lord Tony Hall has been forced to resign his position as National Gallery chairman.
Lord Hall was director of news at the state broadcaster (BBC) during Bashir’s notorious Panorama interview with Princess Diana in November 1995.
An independent inquiry by former senior judge, Lord John Dyson, described the original internal probe into the interview led by Lord Hall in 1996 as “woefully ineffective”.
Following the inquiry’s damning determination Lord hall said his continued presence in his role at the National Gallery would be a “distraction”.
More broadly, the inquiry found Bashir was “unreliable and dishonest”, and more importantly the state broadcaster had fallen “short” of putatively “high standards” when answering probing questions about the infamous interview.
In addition, the inquiry found that Bashir had “seriously breached” BBC rules by creating fake documents which he showed to Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer (better known as Earl Spencer), in order to gain access to her.
Earlier this month the BBC “postponed” a Panorama investigation into the original Panorama interview citing a “significant duty of care issue”.
For his part, Earl Spencer has reportedly written to the Metropolitan Police asking the force to investigate the BBC over Bashir’s elaborate deception which in his view constitutes blackmail and fraud.
However, a spokesman for the Met Police would not comment on whether Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick had received a letter from Earl Spencer.
Bashir left the BBC earlier this week citing “ongoing health issues”.
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