Martin Bashir Latest News: In this piece, we are going to unravel the mystery behind viral news. Recently, the Internet has been abuzz with reports of a message about Martin Bashir being shared on WhatsApp. The viral message claims that the notable journalist has passed away. We are dedicated to providing quality information to our readers after thorough research and fact-checking with multiple credible sources. In this article, we will discuss who Martin Bashir is, What happened to Martin Bashir, Whether Martin Bashir is Alive or Dead, whether the Message Forwarded on WhatsApp was Real or Fake, Martin Bashir and his Controversial Interview with the late Princess of Wales, lady Diana, and much more. Please read the article to learn all about Martin Bashir and his condition.
Is Martin Bashir Alive?
Yes, Martin Bashir is alive and well. According to the reports, the information circulating the Internet about a message being forwarded on WhatsApp claiming Martin Bashir had passed away was merely a rumor.
In today’s modern world of social media, misinformation can spread like wildfire. But we must verify every report with credible sources. We are pleased to inform our readers that Martin Bashir is safe and alive. The rumors of his untimely death have been debunked as an online hoax.
We urge online users to refrain from spreading false reports without confirming them with a credible source. Treating sensitive information with caution, testing its validity through multiple sources, and verifying it with credible sources is essential. In today’s modern world of social media, misinformation can spread like wildfire. We request everyone to verify each piece of information with credible sources before sharing it.
Who is Martin Bashir?
Martin Henry Bashir is a British former journalist. He was a presenter on British and American television and for the BBC’s Panorama program. He became famous after interviewing with the late Princess of Wales, lady Diana, in 1995. It was later determined that he had obtained the interview under false pretenses and had forged a document to secure the interview.
Bashir was born in London on January 19, 1963, to Pakistani immigrants. He graduated from King Alfred’s College (later the University of Winchester), where he studied English. He went to King’s College London and earned a master’s degree in religious history in 1985. A year later, he joined the BBC.
Martin Bashir and his Infamous Interview with Diana
Martin Bashir became world famous after he interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995 for the BBC’s Panorama program. The interview made headlines and was viewed by over 200 million people. The interview has been described as “the scoop of the century” and became a media sensation. It entailed a never-before-discussed intimate view of the Princess of Wales’ failing marriage, where she disclosed both she and her husband, Prince Charles, had been unfaithful and opened up about her struggles with bulimia.
The interview shocked the nation and shed negative light on the Royal family. But the Royal family was not the only one who was put under scrutiny. Things quickly turned intense for the BBC journalist Martin Bashir, who got accused of forging a document to secure the interview. BBC conducted an internal investigation in 1996 but found no wrongdoing.
Nearly 30 years later, a 2021 report revealed that Bashir, in fact, had obtained the interview through deceit and had forged bank statements which implied that Diana was being spied on with the help of her household staff members.
The interview had been conducted in secrecy at Kensington Palace. It featured the infamous line “There were three of us in this marriage,” confirming the future king’s involvement with Camilla Parker-Bowles. In response, the Queen issued letters to both Charles and Diana, advising them to divorce.
The Aftermath
In August 1997, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. She was in the car with her partner, Dodi Fayed, who also passed away. In October 2020, three documentaries were released on ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 regarding the infamous BBC Panorama interview, which sparked a new interest in the controversy. During this time, reports were emerging about Bashir’s declining health due to coronavirus-related complications.
On November 3, 2020, BBC launched an investigation into the matter after Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, alleged that he was shown “false bank statements” to help convince his sister for the interview. He accused Bashir of “sheer dishonesty” and said he would never have introduced him to the late Princess if he had not seen the forged documents.
Lord Dyson, a former Master of Rolls and head of civil justice, was appointed to head the report. Prince William welcomed the investigative report and remarked it was a “step in the right direction.”
According to BBC, it had found a handwritten note from Diana, which seems to absolve Bashir of using a false document to convince her of her Panorama interview. Meanwhile, in March 2021, the Scotland Yard refused to launch a criminal investigation based on allegations.
In May 2021, Bashir resigned from the BBC on health grounds and stepped down from his position as religion editor. Later that month, Dyson’s investigation revealed that Bashir was guilty of deceit and of breaching BBC editorial conduct to obtain the interview. The previous investigation led by Lord Hall in 1996 was described as “woefully ineffective,” and the BBC issued an apology.
Both of Diana’s sons released statements. Prince William stated that the false information reported to his mother added to her sense of “fear, paranoia, and isolation.”
Bashir produced a statement saying, “I apologized then, and I do so again now, over the fact that I asked for bank statements to be mocked up. It was a stupid thing to do and was an action I deeply regret.”
To conduct a thorough investigation into the matter, in December 2023, a judge ordered BBC to release a large number of emails surrounding Bashir’s interview under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, on the request of investigative journalist Andy Webb, claiming that BBC had attempted to cover up Bashir’s actions.
In January 2024, BBC released around 3,000 emails, which included Bashir’s discussion with Robert Seatter, head of BBC History. In the exchange, Bashir claimed that the allegations against him were the result of “professional jealousy” and discrimination against him due to his ethnicity.
He said that obtaining the interview with the Princess while being part of an immigrant family with “working-class roots” resulted in “some irritation” among BBC colleagues.
Other Notable Works
The Controversial Panorama interview made Bashir internationally known. He delivered many other exclusives after his success. In 1998, he interviewed Louise Woodward, a British nanny who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter of an eight-month-old baby, Mathew Eappen, while working in the United States. The same year, he left BBC and joined Granada Television (later ITV Granada).
While working there, he once again made headlines in 2003 with a controversial documentary about American pop icon Michael Jackson. The program included him following the singer for nearly eight months and conducting interviews. The program provided an unfiltered view of the singer’s life and raised questions about his relationships with young children and his abilities as a father. Michael Jackson’s camp slammed the documentary and called it a “tawdry” and a “gross distortion of truth.”
The documentary aired on British TV in 2003 and later on ABC in the United States. In 2004, ABC hired Bashir, and he began cohosting the news program Nightline, where he covered a wide range of topics, such as the Iraq War and the use of anabolic steroids in baseball. In 2008, he was suspended from the channel after making inappropriate remarks during a speech at a dinner for Asian American journalists.
Two years later, he joined NBC News and became a contributor to Dateline. In 2011, he began hosting a political commentary program of his name on MSNBC. However, he left NBC News in 2013 after making degrading remarks about American politician Sarah Palin. He called her a “world-class idiot.”
In 2016, he returned to the BBC as the channel’s religion editor. He resigned in 2021 due to health issues. Shortly afterward, an independent inquiry into the Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, revealed that the journalist had been “deceitful.” Bashir apologized for his actions but maintained that the forged document did not play a role in Diana’s decision to grant the interview.
Honors
Bashir and producer Mike Robinson were presented with the BAFTA Award for Best Talk Show at the 1996 British Academy Television Awards for their work on the interview with Diana for Panorama. Bashir also won the Factual or Science-Based Programme of the Year from the Television and Radio Industries Club, TV Journalist of the Year from the Broadcasting Press Guild, and Journalist of the Year from the Royal Television Society for the Diana interview.
In May 2021, after the Dyson inquiry found Bashir guilty of deceit in securing the interview with Diana, the BBC decided to return the BAFTA Award.
