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Journalist Tom Newton Dunn has slammed the BBC for its handling of the Martin Bashir scandal, unveiled last week. A report published by Lord Dyson into Martin Bashir’s interview with Princess Diana found that he had gained access to her using “deceitful” means and that the BBC had covered up its subsequent internal inquiry into the affair. Mr Newton Dunn said that while he did not condemn BBC journalists, “heads rolling” in the corporation’s management might be needed.
He told BBC Question Time: “The BBC is a great institution, I don’t think any of us would be here if we didn’t believe that.
“I’m pleased the BBC exists, I’m happy to work for a rival broadcaster but I have friends who work for the BBC. I consume the BBC.
“I think the Bashir scandal has shown us the best of the BBC and the worst of the BBC.
“The best is watching my colleagues on the Today programme, on BBC Breakfast, on the full plethora of channels, and indeed Question Time right now, try and hold their own management to account.
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“Every single morning hearing my friend Nick Robinson or Justin Webb saying ‘well we try to get the management on to talk to us about why on earth they made such a mess of this but they won’t come on.’
“I liked hearing that. So good on BBC journalism.”
However, he added that: “The management, I think, and their flaws the Dyson report has exposed has been the worst of the BBC.
“The arrogance, the conceit, the failure to answer basic questions when the report came out.
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Using these documents to win her trust, he secured the interview with her in 1995.
The report also found that the BBC’s 1996 internal probe into the incident was “woefully ineffective.”
It added that the BBC had fallen well short of “the high standards of integrity and transparency.”
Prince William said in a statement in response to the report that its findings brought him “indescribable sadness” and that Martin Bashir’s actions had fuelled his mother’s “fear, paranoia and isolation.”
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