The British Minister of Culture – Entertainment said the BBC must act soon to restore confidence

LONDON (Reuters) – The British government said on Monday that the BBC needed to move quickly to restore confidence after a report on how the network obtained an interview with Princess Diana in 1995 revealed flaws in the core of the public channel.

British Culture Minister Oliver Dowden said the government would not “watch” after the report, which concluded that journalist Martin Bashir obtained Diana’s approval in bad faith and that the BBC heads later concealed their mistake.

“We will not rush reforms, but we will use the mediating mandate (2022) to determine whether governance and organizational arrangements should be strengthened,” Dowden wrote in The Times on Monday.

“The BBC may sometimes succumb to the” we know what we do “stance that deviates from both the critical sense and the values of all parts of the nation it serves, he said.

“The physiology of any organization results in a lack of challenge and bad decision making,” he said. “That is why cultural change should be the focus of the CEO and new president in the wake of the Dyson report.”

The investigation led by former Judge John Dyson into the 1995 interview sparked widespread criticism of the station, including an unprecedented rebuke from Diana’s eldest son, Prince William.

The network’s board of directors said on Monday that it would review the effectiveness of the broadcaster’s editorial and governance policies, funded by a license fee paid by all local viewers.

(By Michael Holden and Paul Sandel)