BBC payout to man who blew whistle on Bashir
THE BBC has been forced into a grovelling apology and a payout after it defamed one of its own journalists after he blew the whistle on reporter Martin Bashir’s underhand tactics at the corporation.
Former Panorama senior reporter and producer Mark Killick accused the corporation of having ‘launched a smear campaign’ against him after he raised concerns about the rogue reporter.
Mr Killick, who had been told about Bashir’s use of faked bank statements to help secure his notorious 1995 Princess Diana interview, was accused of acting out of ‘jealousy’ and suspected of ‘leaks to the press’ after alerting bosses.
He was also said to have been identified as a ‘ troublemaker’ after airing concerns about Bashir’s conduct and was then moved off the programme, where he worked between 1988 and 1995. ‘I still find it staggering that the BBC was so determined to conceal the truth that it launched a smear campaign against me to protect its tainted scoop,’ he said yesterday.
The corporation said it ‘apologises unreservedly’ for ‘defamatory statements’ made about Mr Killick in 1996 in internal documents, when the broadcaster investigated Bashir’s interview. It added it had agreed to pay ‘a significant sum in damages and costs’ – expected to be in the region of £50,000.
The BBC admitted that the former Panorama producer and reporter had acted ‘ entirely properly’ in ‘referring his concerns’ about the disgraced journalist to ‘senior management’.
Last year the BBC reportedly paid more than £1.5million to a charity selected by the Royal Family after the fallout from the Bashir scandal.