After the investigation report into the scandalous interview that BBC reporter Martin Bashir had with Princess Diana in November 1995, Tony Hall, then news chief of the station, has resigned from his current post as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery in London.

Remaining in office would detract from the accomplishments of the prestigious museum "which is so close to my heart," Hall said.

He apologized again for the "events" at that time.

Hall was first news chief, then from 2013 on, broadcaster of the BBC.

He took over the chairmanship of the National Gallery in July of last year.

The reporter Martin Bashir, however, justified his actions in a newspaper interview.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for features online and "media".

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    The investigation of the circumstances of the interview with Princess Diana by the former Supreme Court Justice, John Dyson, had previously come to the disastrous result for the BBC that Martin Bashir had sneaked the conversation with Princess Diana using forgeries. He had forged bank statements to give Diana the impression that people around her were paid by the press and the secret service to investigate her. He also told her and her brother Charles Spencer made up stories about an alleged plot.

    In April 1996, the BBC had already conducted an internal investigation into the interview, which however acquitted Bashir of any wrongdoing. Tony Hall had told the BBC leadership in his capacity as news chief that Bashir was an "honest and sincere man". In his report, Lord Dyson now comes to the conclusion that the examination of that time was "flawed and deplorably ineffective". Even more: The BBC accuses Dyson of "cynical concealment". As a guideline for press inquiries, the station management had given the assessment at the time: "If someone asks about Bashir, the official line is: 'This is uninteresting'." Only now did the BBC admit mistakes and apologize.

    Prince William and Prince Harry on behalf of the British royal family, Lord Grade, once chairman of the BBC, and the British government had also criticized the BBC harshly.

    Martin Bashir, however, who resigned from the BBC a few days ago “for health reasons”, confirmed Lord Dyson's assessment that he was unable to acknowledge the injustice he had committed.

    Bashir's portrayal of things was "implausible, unreliable and in some cases dishonest," said Dyson.

    Bashir is "unable to face the obvious fact that he has violated the commandment of correct behavior."

    "I didn't mean to harm Diana in any way"

    Bashir told the Sunday Times, “I didn't mean to harm Diana in any way, and I don't think we did either.” All that was done during the interview “was as she wanted it to be: the timing at which she wanted to alert the palace, the time of broadcast, the content ”. "My family and I," said Bashir, "loved them." Of course, he regrets what he did, the reporter said. "It was wrong. But it had no meaning for anything. ”It had no meaning for Diana and not for the interview. She said what she wanted to say. In the interview Diana reported on her broken marriage with Prince Charles, alluded to his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and said the famous sentence: "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit close."

    Diana's brother Charles Spencer, who had initiated the reopening of the investigation, had been baited by Bashir with the forged bank statements so that he could gain access to Spencer's sister.

    Charles Spencer, like Diana's sons, Prince William and Harry, is convinced that the interview fueled Diana's fear of persecution.

    It contributed to the "fear, paranoia and isolation" of his mother, said Prince William.

    Harry was convinced that Bashir's interview ultimately led to Diana's tragic death.

    She was killed in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997 after the vehicle in which she and her partner Dodi Al-Fayed sat was chased by paparazzi.