Ofcom chief was involved in the BBC’s ‘whitewash’
A FORMER BBC executive closely involved in the original inquiry into the 1995 Panorama interview has sidestepped a potential conflict of interest arising from his role with broadcasting regulator Ofcom.
Ofcom is ‘carefully considering’ a new complaint over the interview, but insisted that Tim Suter will not be involved in assessing whether to launch a full investigation into it.
Mr Suter, 64, helped to set up the regulator and remains on its ‘content board’, which supervises decisions on whether to impose sanctions on broadcasters.
As the BBC’s managing editor of weekly programmes, he played a significant role in the 1996 internal investigation into allegations that BBC journalist Martin Bashir used unethical tactics to secure his interview with Princess Diana.
A new ‘robust and independent’ BBC investigation will now look at the 1996 inquiry, which has been
branded a whitewash. The corporation announced last Friday that it had ‘recovered’ a long-lost note written by Diana which it had previously used to exonerate itself over claims of Bashir’s allegedly underhand tactics.
Before then, Mr Suter was the only person the BBC has quoted as having seen the note, which is said to show that Diana was happy with the interview and the methods used to obtain it. However, her brother, Earl Spencer, has made plain his belief that Bashir used fake bank statements in order to gain an introduction to the Princess and gain her trust. He has written to BBC director-general Tim Davie saying that his predecessor, Lord Hall, covered up a ‘web of deceit spun by those in the organisation that you now control’.
Mr Suter, who gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry on Press regulation, was also a board member of the independent body later set up to oversee UK Press regulators. The Press Recognition Panel was established by Royal Charter in 2014 to certify that the regulators meet Leveson requirements. The new complaint to Ofcom was submitted by David Hooper, a retired media solicitor, who called the Panorama claims ‘a complete scandal’. He also said that the BBC should not investigate itself.
When the claims against Bashir surfaced in 1996, an investigation by Tony Hall – later Lord Hall – concluded that the journalist had been ‘incautious’ but was an ‘honest’ man.
Ofcom said: ‘Tim Suter has had no involvement, nor will he have, in any consideration by Ofcom of this complaint, nor of the Panorama case.’