BBC set to hand over secret Diana emails about Martin Bashir scandal

Story from Daily Mail:

The BBC is set to hand over documents related to the Martin Bashir scandal after a judge ordered the corporation to give them up earlier this month – but may redact some before surrendering them to a tribunal.

An information rights tribunal has told the corporation to hand over 3,000 emails relating to Bashir's interview with Princess Diana within weeks more than two years after journalist Andrew Webb used freedom of information (FOI) laws to ask for them.

The broadcaster initially resisted, only handing over a handful of the 3,288 documents it said it had found, but the tribunal has since said it must hand over the full stack of material. The BBC will have the final say on blotting out its contents.

The scandal, over how he secured the Panorama chat with the Princess of Wales in 1995, emerged after the former BBC head of news Lord Hall of Birkenhead wrongly claimed that Diana's brother Earl Spencer had given Mr Bashir bank statements.

Mr Bashir was found to be in 'serious breach' of the broadcaster's guidelines when he recruited a graphic designer to create misleading bank statements that he then showed to Earl Spencer to secure the interview.

The mocked-up statements appeared to suggest associates of the Earl were receiving payments from a tabloid newspaper, presumably in exchange for spying on his sister.

Bashir also peddled false claims to the princess, including that her son Prince William's watch had been bugged in order to listen in to her conversations.

The lies secured what was, at the time, heralded as an earth-shattering interview.

Diana famously told Bashir of Charles' then-mistress, Camilla: 'There were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded.'

She also spoke openly about her struggles with post-natal depression and bulimia – but it later emerged that Bashir had secured the conversation by duplicitous means.

The tribunal heard on Friday that the BBC will release the documents, but will redact some under section 42 of the FOI Act, which covers 'confidential communications' between lawyers and their clients.

Mr Webb told the hearing: 'We all know that some documents, roughly 300, will be claimed by the BBC to be withheld under section 42.'

He said earlier: 'I have been waiting two-and-a-half years for these documents.

'We have been told this whole mass of data was initially meaningless, irrelevant and nothing to do with a cover-up etc. The BBC has been fairly forcefully told that is not good enough.

'The whole ... let's call it Bashir scandal, (happened because) 11 words appeared in a mass of emails.'

Jason Pobjoy, representing the BBC, told the hearing 'a huge amount of work' had been done reviewing the material and that the broadcaster was 'very, very anxious' to avoid appealing the judge's decision.

He said of expected next steps: 'We provide all the documents. The BBC then has two weeks to provide submissions on any exemptions, which I think primarily will be submissions on section 42.'

He added that other exemptions would also be relied on and said that, in a bundle of around 400 emails which had been looked at, a 'significant number' contained 'third-party personal data' such as email addresses and phone numbers.

The lawyer said: 'This is not giving us free rein just to redact without consequence.

'(The BBC is) only claiming when there is a legitimate exemption that applies.'

The BBC must hand over the documents by January 24 and, if any are redacted, Mr Webb must be told which exemptions the broadcaster relied on as justification.

Full submissions about why they were redacted would be provided two weeks later.

Mr Webb can challenge any of the redactions if he wishes and, if he does so, the tribunal will be able to access the unredacted emails when coming to a decision on whether they should be disclosed in full.

Judge Brian Kennedy said that if Mr Webb did challenge any of the redactions, the case was 'right open at the starting point again'.

The judge added that he was 'pleased with the co-operation that seems to be emerging' between Mr Webb and the BBC as he adjourned the case to a date to be fixed.

The Mail on Sunday published claims about Bashir's use of illicit bank statements to gain access to the princess in 1996, a year after the interview aired.

But the full extent of Bashir's deception only came to light in 2020 when the BBC was forced to release a damning 67-page dossier of memos and minutes from 1995 and 1996 on his methods and means of accessing the royal to Mr Webb.

Mr Webb has continued to lobby the BBC using FOI laws to gain more insights into how much the corporation knew, later uncovering a memo from former executive Anne Sloman that indicated the corporation's appetite to kill the story.

'The Diana story is probably now dead, unless Spencer talks,' she concluded in the memo that only came to light in 2021.

Another subsequent request is at the centre of this legal battle; the BBC's legal team includes barrister Jason Pobjoy, who represented Boris Johnson during the storm of Partygate allegations.

Webb said earlier this month of the ruling compelling the BBC to hand over the documents: 'I firmly believe that last week's judgment is a sign that the last remaining cover-up of this sordid saga has begun to unravel. The remaining secrets surrounding the Bashir scandal might now finally see the light of day.'