Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the BBC should take “every possible step” to ensure nothing like its deceit of the Princess of Wales to secure an interview ever happens again.
The PM said he was “very concerned” after an inquiry found Martin Bashir faked bank documents to obtain his 1995 interview.
The BBC said it had made fundamental changes in governance since the 1990s.
Mr Johnson said he was grateful to retired judge Lord Dyson for carrying out the inquiry, which found the BBC covered up “deceitful behaviour” by Mr Bashir to secure the headline-making interview.
“I can only imagine the feelings of the royal family and I hope very much that the BBC will be taking every possible step to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” he said.
The Panorama interview featured Princess Diana giving an extraordinarily frank account of her marriage to the Prince of Wales, famously saying “there were three of us in this marriage” – a reference to her husband’s affair with the future Duchess of Cornwall and admitting to an affair of her own.
After ministers suggested the broadcaster’s governance may need to be changed, the corporation said there had been two substantial changes to how it is overseen since the time of the interview but “there is much to reflect on”.
READ MORE: Met to examine report on Martin Bashir's 'deceitful behaviour'
It defended re-hiring Mr Bashir as religion editor in 2016, when questions had already been asked about his conduct, saying the post was filled after a competitive interview process. Mr Bashir has since resigned without a pay-off.
The BBC has said it would review his other work “where evidence is made available”.
Media watchdog Ofcom’s chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, said Lord Dyson’s findings were “clearly of great concern” and raised important questions about the BBC’s transparency and accountability.
She said Ofcom would be considering the report and discussing with the corporation what further actions may be needed to ensure the situation was never repeated.
Former BBC executive Tim Suter, who was part of a 1996 BBC internal investigation into the Diana interview, has stepped down from his board role with Ofcom, the broadcast regulator said.
The Met Police said it will assess the new report, after previously deciding against a criminal investigation.
The Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex also slammed Mr Bashir and the BBC over the interview.
On Thursday night, Prince William took the rare decision to make a televised statement lambasting the BBC after the inquiry found the broadcaster covered up “deceitful behaviour” used by Mr Bashir to secure his 1995 Panorama interview with the princess.
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He said: “It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”
Prince Harry also issued a scathing statement, saying: “The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.”
Meanwhile, a former producer with the corporation has said trust in the BBC has been “eroded” by the scandal and the corporation’s inadequate investigation into the matter.
Ex-BBC Breakfast news journalist Andrew Carapiet, who was working in the newsroom the night the episode of Panorama was shown, said: “At the time there was surprise a chap called Martin Bashir, who was really pretty unknown - I don’t think anybody had heard of him – had access to this and there were raised eyebrows.
“And then because it was such a success, everyone forgot about the raised eyebrows. It was such a success in the sense that it was amazing to get Princess Diana to say all these things against the royal family. It was an amazing scoop, everyone was patting themselves on the back.
“We weren’t aware there was later on an investigation into what was going on. We certainly weren’t aware about these allegations about the bank statements, no idea. No idea about any of all of that. And it’s all coming out.”
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