I asked last Thursday: will the BBC be able to screen Panorama next Monday? Now we have the answer: no, it will not.
The BBC has announced that its scheduled programme about Mazher Mahmood, "The fake sheikh exposed", has been postponed "while legal issues play themselves out."
According to a corporation spokesperson: "We expect to broadcast on Monday November 10th."
There had been a hint of this outcome in a tweet on Wednesday by Panorama's producer, Meirion Jones, in which he wrote:
"Apparently we may be stopped from exposing the Fake Sheikh by the legal apparatus but I can't tell you more until Monday."
It was unclear exactly what "legal apparatus" was involved. But it was thought that lawyers acting for Mahmood had raised objections to the programme's expected content.
The BBC's publicity material for Panorama stated that its reporter, John Sweeney, had spoken to some of Mahmood's highest profile targets and the men who helped him expose them.
It stated: "They allege that the fake sheikh was the real crook, using sophisticated entrapment and even creating crimes and fabricating evidence."
Mahmood, a Sun on Sunday journalist, was suspended by his newspaper in July this year following the collapse of a trial involving the singer and former X-Factor judge, Tulisa Contostavlos.
Mahmood was the main witness in the trial, which concerned a story he wrote about Contostavlos setting up a drugs deal. She insisted she had been entrapped in a sting operation.
The judge ruled that it was likely Mahmood had attempted to persuade a witness to change his evidence and then lied about it under oath. He therefore stopped the trial and acquitted Contostavlos.
The Crown Prosecution Service has since dropped two other cases (see here and here) in which Mahmood was set to be the key witness.
There were suggestions after the collapsed Contostavlos trial that Mahmood might face a perjury charge. The Metropolitan police have previously refused to confirm or deny whether any action will be taken against him.
According to people familiar with the situation at the Sun, Mahmood is said to be the subject of "an exhaustive internal investigation" by the paper's publishers, News UK.
Full disclosure: I was interviewed for the programme.
