The BBC is hardly a stranger to crises of various kinds and rows with powerful political figures. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was furious when the BBC interviewed IRA terrorists in Northern Ireland and gave them – as she put it – the “oxygen of publicity".
Over the years when I presented what was billed as the BBC's "flagship" TV news and current affairs programme, Newsnight, our editors made two catastrophic errors. One editor halted an investigation into the popular BBC TV personality Jimmy Savile because – in that editor's view – the researchers had not found enough evidence that Savile was a sexual predator. When that evidence did emerge, the BBC's failures were brutally exposed. Then the BBC ran a report wrongly claiming a leading Conservative member of the House of Lords was himself a sexual predator. He wasn't. The accusations were utterly false, and after this shameful episode, George Entwistle, the BBC director general at the time, was forced to quit after only 54 days in the job.
However, none of these crises is as serious as the way in which the BBC's reputation has been damaged by the extraordinary events surrounding the famous interview with the late Princess Diana a generation ago on the BBC's Panorama programme.
The Panorama reporter, Martin Bashir, secured the "scoop of the century" in 1995. It was the first time a serving member of the British royal family had spoken out on television candidly about her unhappy marriage and other usually private matters. Tens of millions of people around the world watched this BBC scoop, but from the start there were rumours about how the interview was obtained.
As we now know for certain, Bashir forged documents to try to persuade Diana to take part. His conduct was despicable. An organisation based on truth and facts cannot conduct its business through deceit.
Bashir left the BBC to work in the US for many years, yet he was re-employed by the BBC as a religious affairs correspondent in 2016 despite some senior figures – including the then BBC director general Tony Hall – knowing of the serious allegations against him.
Following a new inquiry, Diana's son, Prince William, has been justifiably outraged. His mother was failed "by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions", he said, and the BBC contributed to the "fear, paranoia and isolation" that blighted his mother's life.
This sorry affair has deeply disappointed those who – like me – generally admire the BBC. It has also delighted the corporation’s enemies. These enemies include some British newspapers who are hopeful that the BBC will now be much diminished – even though these same newspaper journalists and editors themselves made Diana’s life a misery. Her story, her beauty and her unhappiness sold their papers to a public hungry for every detail about her life.
A 1995 file photo showing a selection of front pages of most of Britain's national newspapers. AP Photo
This is the worst BBC crisis I can think of, and it comes at the worst possible time.
The very idea of public service broadcasting worldwide is being questioned as never before. From Netflix and podcasts to new privately funded radio and TV channels, the idea of British people paying a licence fee – in effect, a tax – to fund the BBC has been undermined by technology as well as by commercial competitors. In the US, the impact of Fox News and similar outlets has been to downgrade hard, factual journalism and replace it with fact-free and loudmouthed opinions. The result has been the polarisation of American public life, and a loss of trust in truth itself.
This is an existential crisis for an organisation that has been a pillar of British democracy and a beacon to much of the world for a century
All this means that the new director general, Tim Davie, has three urgent tasks to ensure the BBC’s survival.
First, he has to reassure the British public who pay for the corporation, that he will make sure such conduct never happens again. That may mean setting up a new independent supervisory board of some kind.
Second, he has to demonstrate to the government and Parliament that the BBC can produce new regulatory arrangements independent enough to root out bad conduct.
Third, he has to reassure BBC staff that honest and hard-hitting journalism is still possible, because if the BBC is neutered, the best and brightest creative minds will go elsewhere.
None of this will be easy but this is an existential crisis for an organisation that has been a pillar of British democracy and a beacon to much of the world for a century. Politicians are already talking about cutting or freezing the BBC's funding. BBC journalists are worried that a diminished or cowed corporation will be too scared to scrutinise political figures for fear of yet another row and the government's revenge.
Davie has managed – at last – to address the 25 years of rumours and innuendo about Bashir’s conduct, and what seems to me to be the inexplicable decision to re-employ Bashir in 2016. The next few months will decide whether he can build on the BBC’s glorious past and steer it through the troubles of the present to turn public service broadcasting towards a better future.
Gavin Esler is a broadcaster and UK columnist for The National
MATCH INFO
Day 1 at Mount Maunganui
England 241-4
Denly 74, Stokes 67 not out, De Grandhomme 2-28
New Zealand
Yet to bat
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
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Electric scooters: some rules to remember
Riders must be 14-years-old or over
Wear a protective helmet
Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
5pm: Warsan Lake – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m; Winner: Dhaw Al Reef, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Al Quadra Lake – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Mrouwah Al Gharbia, Sando Paiva, Abubakar Daud
6pm: Hatta Lake – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: AF Yatroq, George Buckell, Ernst Oertel
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Adries de Vries, Ibrahim Aseel
7pm: Abu Dhabi Championship – Listed (PA) Dh180,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Bahar Muscat, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Zakher Lake – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Alfareeq, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi.
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister. "We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know. “All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.” It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins. Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement. The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Why seagrass matters
Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
An arms embargo
A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
