Martin Bashir

Martin Henry Bashir born 19 January 1963 is a British former journalist He was a presenter on British and American television and for the BBCs Panorama programme for which he gained an interview with Diana Princess of Wales under false pretences in 1995 Although the interview was much heralded at the time it was later determined that he used forgery and deception to secure it Bashir worked for the BBC from 1986 to 1999 on programmes including Panorama before joining ITV He presented the 2003 ITV documentary about Michael Jackson From 2004 to 2016 he worked in New Yorkfirst as an anchor for ABCs Nightline then as a political commentator for MSNBC hosting his own programme Martin Bashir and a correspondent for NBCs Dateline NBC He resigned from MSNBC in December 2013 after making illjudged comments about former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin In 2016 he returned to the BBC as a religious affairs correspondent In 2020 the BBCs director general Tim Davie apologised to the princesss brother Charles Spencer 9th Earl Spencer for Bashirs use of faked bank statements to secure his 1995 Panorama interview with her Former Justice of the Supreme Court Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry and concluded that Bashir had commissioned fake statements to deceive Earl Spencer to gain access to Diana and in so doing had acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers Guidelines on straight dealing Bashir resigned from the BBC in May 2021 citing health reasons Description above from the Wikipedia article Martin Bashir licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia