Former BBC presenter Roger Bolton has said that the BBC should get an “external regulator” because “no institution is to be trusted” to “mark their own homework.”
It comes as it was discovered in 2021 via an inquiry that journalist Martin Bashir had allegedly secured a tell-all interview with Princess Diana through deception and fake documents.
Following a freedom of information request, the BBC has now released over 3,000 emails in connection with the interview and Martin Bashir.
Investigative journalist Andy Webb put in the freedom of information (FoI) request more than two years ago, after claims that BBC managers had tried to cover up Bashir’s actions.
Roger Bolton said that “no institution to be trusted” to “mark their own homework.”
GB News
BBC said any suggestion that it had acted in bad faith was “simply wrong”.
The statement read: “We have made redactions, where necessary, consistent with the Freedom of Information Act. There is nothing to support the allegations that the BBC acted in bad faith in 2020 and we maintain this suggestion is simply wrong.
Speaking to GB News host Andrew Pierce asked Bolton: “The reason this interview made such reverberations around the world was because it was conducted on the BBC.
People trusted the BBC. It was a worldwide famous institution. This has shattered a lot of people’s faith in the BBC hasn’t it?”
He spoke to GB News
GB News
He responded: “There is a campaign against the BBC by the Telegraph. The trust in the BBC is still extraordinarily high, but the story was extremely damaging. It was a disgraceful episode.
“The cover-up was disgraceful but it was 20 years ago. I hope I’m not being naive but I do not believe that this director general would be part of a cover-up today.
“The crucial thing from all of this is don’t let anybody mark their own homework. Always have an external regulator.
“And we’ve learned that time and time again, no institution to be trusted. For example the Roman Catholic Church oversexually abuse.
The BBC are facing the allegations of cover-up
GETTY
“The instinct to protect the institution and you persuade yourself it’s the right thing to do is fatal. Get an external regulator, be open.”
“Answer the Freedom of Information and if they have deliberately held back anything of vital and real importance this time around, that will absolutely shatter the reputation of the BBC.
“I don’t think they have. I hope they haven’t.”
In an email dated July 2020, Bashir told BBC’s head of history Robert Seatter that forged documents played “no role” in securing the interview, and it would have been less controversial if a “dynastic” journalist such as one of the Dimblebys had been involved.
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