people acted in good faith. i think they were really out to find the right person. i think that when you look at it you say, if they had known what we know now, and this is what the report said, there is absolutely no way you would have hired martin bashir. they did not have that knowledge of the 96 events and what had happened in terms of martin bashir s behaviour to secure the interview with princess diana. if they have that, i don t think anyone would have made the hire. mr davie was back in the public eye on tuesday, appearing in front of a parliamentary select committee along with two previous director generals lord birt, who was in charge at the time of the princess diana interview, and lord hall, who ran the news division at the time and concluded in a 1996 investigation that martin bashir was a decent and honourable man . lord hall told the committee that he regretted coming to that verdict, and explained why he didn t
prompting a detailed condemnation of the bbc by prince william. she was failed notjust by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the bbc who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. let me start off by saying, if i might, to acknowledge how hard this has been, the lord dyson investigation, for the royal family, for the two princes, and i m sorry for the hurt that caused. that s why i m very surprised that - you have no recollection. the committee also interrogated lord birt, who was director general in the 1990s. he emphasised the manipulative nature of martin bashir. unless you understand that this was a serial liar on an industrial scale, you simply can t understand the story. but bashir was rehired by the bbc in 2016, when he d already been forced to leave jobs in the us, made offensive remarks about women and aroused widespread suspicion about how he secured other interviews. now, then, the former director general of
secured an interview with princess diana, for which he would be much garlanded. a recent independent review by lord dyson, a seniorjudge, accepted that princess diana probably would have given the interview in any case, but was scathing about hall s judgment in believing bashir, prompting a detailed condemnation of the bbc by prince william. she was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the bbc who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. let me start off by saying, if i might, to acknowledge how hard this has been, the lord dyson investigation, for the royalfamily, for the two princes, and i m sorry for the hurt that caused. that s why i m very surprised that you have no recollection. - the committee also interrogated lord birt, who was director general in the 1990s. he emphasised the manipulative nature of martin bashir.
lord hall was director of bbc news when martin bashir, having forged bank documents, secured an interview with princess diana, for which he would be much garlanded. a recent independent review by lord dyson, a seniorjudge, accepted that princess diana probably would have given the interview in any case, but was scathing about all s judgment in believing bashir, prompting a detailed condemnation of the bbc by prince william. she was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the bbc who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. let me start off by saying, if i might, to acknowledge how hard this has been, the lord dyson investigation, for the royalfamily, for the two princes, and i m sorry for the hurt that caused. that s why i m very surprised that you have no recollection. - the committee also interrogated lord birt, who was director general in the 1990s.
to secure his interview with diana, princess of wales, to the decision to re employ him in 2016. this was a chance for mps to grill the current director general, tim davie, as well as former bbc bosses lord birt and lord hall. in a 1996 enquiry, lord hall had described bashir as an honest and honourable man. let me start by saying, if i might, to acknowledge how hard this has been, the lord dyson investigation, for the royal family, for the two princes, and i am sorry for the hurt caused. but at core, here, i trusted a journalist, i gave him a second chance. we, the team, gave him a second chance, and the trust was abused and misplaced. let me say i don t think the words, honest and honourable, 25 years on, look appropriate at all. yesterday, the bbc published