BBC donates £1.4m from Diana interview to charity
The BBC has given £1.42m from the sales of the 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana to charity.
The interview was subject to an investigation that found reporter Martin Bashir used fake documents to gain access to the late royal.
The BBC shared the funds equally between seven charities linked to Diana and said it was “the right and appropriate course of action”.
It said the donations come from its commercial revenue not the licence fee.
The funds have been given to Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH), The Leprosy Mission, National Aids Trust, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and The Diana Award.
The first six charities listed are those with which the princess remained involved at the time of her death and The Diana Award was created in her memory.
The broadcaster said: “The BBC had indicated its intention to donate to charity the sales proceeds derived from the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
“The BBC has now done so. Given the findings of Lord Dyson, we think this is the right and appropriate course of action.”
A spokesperson from GOSH said the funds would be “hugely beneficial” in helping seriously ill children who are being treated at the London hospital.
The BBC has previously apologised after a report last year found Mr Bashir acted in “a deceitful way” to obtain the interview.
The report by Lord Dyson concluded that the interview had been procured using fake documents and said the BBC fell short of “high standards of integrity and transparency”.
The interview – viewed by more than 22 million people in the UK at the time – was described by commentators in 1995 as a “bombshell” that destroyed the image of a “contented, caring and united” Royal Family.
In July, BBC director-general Tim Davie vowed to “never” again broadcast clips from the interview.
He said: “Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained, I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again, nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.
“I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”
The 25th anniversary of Diana’s death in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris was marked on Wednesday.
Thousands of mourners paid tribute to the princess by gathering at her former residence, Kensington Palace in London.