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The BBC has donated over £1.4 million made from the sales of the Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, to charity.

The £1.42m sum will be shared equally between seven charities linked with the late royal.

In August 2021, the broadcaster announced that it would make amends for Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana.

At the time, BBC said that it intended to pay about £1.5m to a charity chosen by the royal family. The figure would include the £1.15m sum the network made from the global rights to the interview.

In May last year, BBC apologised to the royal family and returned its Bafta award after an official inquiry concluded that Bashir used “deceitful behaviour” and was in “serious breach” of the corporation’s guidelines when he secured his Panorama interview with the princess.

Bashir broke BBC rules by mocking up fake bank statements and showing them to Diana’s brother,...

Former BBC director general Tony Hall has resigned from his position as chair of the U.K.’s National Gallery in the wake of the investigation over his role in the Princess Diana “Panorama” interview scandal.

“I have today resigned as chair of the National Gallery,” Hall said in a statement on Saturday. “I have always had a strong sense of public service and it is clear my continuing in the role would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about.”

“As I said two days ago, I am very sorry for the events of 25 years ago and I believe leadership means taking responsibility.”

An independent investigation into a 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Princess Diana, conducted by journalist Martin Bashir, had found that the public broadcaster “fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark.”

The findings of the Lord Dyson inquiry, which...

Martin Bashir obtained his bombshell interview of Princess Diana on the 1995 BBC “Panorama” program by “deceitful” means, according to U.K. newspaper the Telegraph.

The findings of an independent investigation are expected to be published on Thursday. It was conducted by Lord Dyson and the report is understood to be critical of the role of Tony Hall, former director general of the BBC and then the corporation’s head of news and current affairs, in the matter.

The Dyson report is separate from the Panorama investigative team’s own investigation into the earlier episode.

Richard Ayre, BBC controller of editorial policy in 1995, told the Telegraph: “The use of deceit in making factual programs would have been permissible only in the case of investigating serious crime . . . and where prima facie evidence of the guilt of that person being investigated had already been obtained. Those circumstances clearly don’t apply to an...

Nineteen-year-old Claudia lives with her mother, brother and four-year-old son in a public housing complex in Vienna, with no job, no prospects on the horizon, and the present slipping by in a series of uneventful days. But in “Running on Empty,” which premiered Feb. 25 in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival, director Lisa Weber finds a family capable of evoking empathy, laughter, shock and love as they struggle to make ends meet.

Following Claudia and her family for more than three years, Weber eschewed the tawdry voyeurism of reality TV for a documentary approach that offers a revealing portrait of her protagonists, while exploring all that happens in daily life when nothing really seems to be happening.

Weber spoke to Variety in Berlin about the long genesis of her movie, the challenge of putting a boundary between her and her subjects, and the universal truths revealed by her intimate approach to filmmaking.

John Travolta has blasted the BBC over a documentary investigating the controversial Scientology religion. The Pulp Fiction star slammed the UK journalist John Sweeney for harboring "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" in the documentary, and accused the reporter of displaying "hatred against my religion." The star filed the complaint after BBC journalist John Sweeney confronted Travolta at a movie premiere, asking "Are you a member of a brainwashing cult?" In a letter to the corporation, Travolta wrote: "There was a man screaming insults and accusations about my religion from the crowd... he should not be given a forum to air his personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity." The heated letter follows leaked footage of the documentary appearing on youtube.com - which showed Sweeney losing his temper at Scientology members. Sweeney has since apologized for the outburst. The documentary for the current affairs program Panorama will be screened in the UK today.

LONDON -- Commercial television's ITV News beat BBC News to win top prizes at the Royal Television Society's annual journalism awards announced Tuesday night. ITV Evening News was named news program of the year and ITV's John Irvine won the prize as TV journalist of the year. An ITV special, Welcome to Baghdad, reported by Irvine, won the international news award. Living with Michael, produced by Granada for ITV and featuring Martin Bashir's famous interview with Michael Jackson, won as program of the year. Sky News was named news channel of the year and Channel 4 won the news event award for its coverage of the Iraq war. The BBC picked up the international current affairs award for an episode of Panorama titled In the Line of Fire, which detailed the realities of modern warfare.