Martin Bashir

Martin Bashir

Martin Henry Bashir (born 19 January 1963) is a retired British journalist and news anchor. He was a presenter on American and British television and for the BBC's Panorama programme. He came to prominence on British television in 1995, using forgery and deception to obtain a BBC interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2003 he presented his 2003 ITV documentary about Michael Jackson. Bashir worked for the BBC from 1986 until 1999 on programmes including Panorama before joining ITV. From 2004 to 2016, he worked in New York, first as an anchor for ABC's Nightline and then as a political commentator for MSNBC, hosting his own programme, Martin Bashir, and a correspondent for NBC's Dateline NBC. He resigned from his position at MSNBC in December 2013 after making "ill-judged" comments about the former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In 2016, he returned to the BBC as religious affairs correspondent, and resigned in May 2021, citing health reasons.The Panorama interview Bashir conducted with the Princess of Wales in 1995 led the BBC's director general Tim Davie to apologise to the brother of the princess, Earl Spencer, for Bashir's use of faked bank statements to gain the interview with his sister. Former Justice of the Supreme Court John Dyson, Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry into the issue. Lord Dyson's inquiry concluded Bashir had commissioned fake statements to deceive Earl Spencer in order to gain access to Princess Diana and in so doing had "acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing." The Metropolitan Police stated, "Following the publication of Lord Dyson's report we will assess its contents to ensure there is no significant new evidence."

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