BBC agrees deal with whistleblower

London: The BBC on Friday said it had reached an agreement with a graphic designer who was sidelined for blowing the whistle on underhand methods used to secure an interview with Princess Diana.

Matt Wiessler was asked by disgraced journalist Martin Bashir to mock up bank statements, which were then shown to Diana’s brother Earl Spencer as part of an elaborate ploy to convince the princess to agree to take part. The 1995 interview saw Diana detail her collapsing marriage to Prince Charles, including that he had kept up his affair with his long-time mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Wiessler told BBC bosses of his concerns at the time, but they then colluded to make sure that he would never work for the corporation again after his contract expired. "We are pleased that the BBC and Mr Wiessler have reached an agreement," the corporation said in a statement. "We would like to repeat our full and unconditional apology to Mr Wiessler for the way he was treated by the corporation in the past.

An inquiry into the affair by retired senior judge John Dyson said Bashir commissioned faked bank statements to falsely suggest that some of Diana’s closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her.