BBC set to pay Bashir whistleblower £750k damages
Artist was blacklisted by the corporation after going public on concerns over rogue presenter
THE whistleblower who first disclosed Martin Bashir’s dirty tricks in securing his Princess Diana interview is set to receive as much as £750,000 in compensation from the BBC.
Matt Wiessler, a freelance graphic artist, was blacklisted by the broadcaster 25 years ago for raising concerns over Bashir after he asked him to fake bank statements.
The falsified statements were then shown by Bashir to Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, gaining his trust and leading directly to the blockbuster interview with his sister on Panorama in 1995 in which she complained of Prince Charles’s infidelity.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that the BBC’s lawyers are now on the verge of signing off a deal to offer Mr Wiessler around £750,000 for the damage to his career and loss of earnings.
Internal correspondence released last year disclosed that BBC executives decided Mr Wiessler should never be allowed to work ork for the corporation poration again, in part because he had d voiced his concerns ncerns to the media.
Mr Wiessler’s er’s lawyers had demanded d £1million for loss of earnings ings and distress caused sed to their client. The BBC has accepted pted full liability for r his treatment and the two sides are now arguing over the size of damages.
A source involved in the negotiations said: “We expect the BBC and Mr Wiessler ssler to agree the amount. mount.
The BBC is expecting pecting to pay out in the region of £750,000. Mr Wiessler had wanted £1million and it’s just a question of reaching an agreement. This is not a case that is going to be dragged out and go to court.” The BBC has let it be known that a settlem settlement ment is still being bei thrashed out but that Mr Wiessler’s damage damages claim is not being di disputed.
An in independent report by Lord Dyson concluded that B Bashir had commiss missioned the phoney ban bank statements fro from Mr Wiessler. The statements purportedly showed payments to Alan Waller, Earl Spencer’s former head of security, from News International and an offshore company. Earl Spencer said the payments were used “to groom me, so that [Bashir] could then get to Diana for the interview he was secretly after”.
Mr Waller is also separately considering legal action against the BBC demanding more than £1 million for damage caused to his business as a security consultant when it later emerged that his name was used by Bashir to get to the Earl.
Bashir, 58, made his name on the back of the Princess Diana interview, enjoying a lucrative career at ITV and in the US before returning to the BBC.
He was forced to resign as religion editor in the days before Lord Dyson’s highly critical report was published in May. Lord Dyson concluded he had used deceit to gain the interview.
Mr Wiessler complained last year, when it emerged he had been secretly blacklisted, that he had been made the scapegoat by the BBC for trying to expose Bashir’s wrongdoing. “It’s a bit like blaming a fountain pen for writing a nasty letter,” he said.
Mr Wiessler had been a successful graphic artist with the corporation and had won a Royal Television Society award for his work on the BBC’s 1992 election coverage.
He had just left the BBC to form his own graphic design company when Bashir approached him with a request to mock up the fake bank statements. Mr Wiessler was never informed he was banned from working for the BBC but assignments requested by the corporation dried up in the fallout from his attempt to make public Bashir’s deceit as long ago as 1996. He left the media industry and is now co-owner of a bicycle design company.
In response to the Dyson review, Mr Wiessler said in a statement: “After a quarter of a century of cover-ups and smears, it’s good to know the truth is finally out that I acted with integrity and responsibly from day one. By blowing the whistle on the deception, I suffered the fate of the fall guy.
“The order from BBC management to make sure I never got any more work from the BBC was despicable. It had a devastating effect on my career and professional reputation.”
Mr Wiessler’s solicitor, Louis Charalambous of Simons Muirhead Burton, said the report made clear his client is “an honourable and thoroughly professional individual who won awards during his time at the BBC”.
A fortnight later, Mr Wiessler met with the BBC’s director general Tim Davie who offered a personal apology.
Asked about the prospect of being paid compensation in the wake of the meeting, Mr Wiessler said: “There might well be but I’m not involved in that and Tim and I have spoken about that quite openly, it’s sort of confidential but we very much both just want to move on.”
The BBC declined to comment on an “ongoing legal process”.
‘The order from BBC management had a devastating effect on my career and reputation’