How BBC must respond to Prince William’s fury over Martin Bashir and Panorama report – The Yorkshire Post says

To their credit, they recognise the importance of “public service broadcasting and a free press”. What dismays them, and the rest of society, is how the BBC allowed its editorial ethics to be abused – and then covered-up its failings.

And the charge the family have made against the BBC, namely that its actions triggered a tragic chain of events culminating with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, is now so serious that it demands a statutory inquiry after Lord Dyson’s remit was too limited.

A failure to do so will not only compromise all news organisations committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism; it will diminish the BBC’s ability to hold those in power to account.

Yet the near-silence of those who oversaw Panorama, and inquiries at the time, is perturbing. After all, legal complaints had already been made to BBC by lawyers acting for then football manager Terry Venables about the alleged use of fake bank documents by Mr Bashir – the same modus operandi that led to the Diana ‘coup’.

This is the same Mr Bashir who received a congratulatory note from his boss Tony Hall, who went on to become BBC director-general and a peer, saying the “scoop” had “changed the way we report the monarchy”. #

No wonder Princes William and Harry want further answers – for themselves, their wider family and the mother that they still mourn.

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