Nearly a decade after her horrific death Princess Diana is still making headlines. The latest coverage includes pleas from Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The princes are going public with their wishes that a British television station not broadcast a series of photos taken immediately after the car crash that killed their mother in Paris on August 31, 1997.
In a statement to network executives Prince William and Prince Harry maintained that showing the images in a documentary scheduled to air today would be a “gross disrespect to their mother’s memory” and “deeply distressing” to them.
In a letter to Channel 4 the princes’ private secretary asked: “If it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel, would we want the scene broadcast to the nation?”
No word on the exact answer, but if actions speak louder than words than the princes would be hearing a rousing: “YES.” According to the head of Channel 4: “We have weighed the Princes’ concerns against the legitimate public interest we believe there is in the subject of this documentary and in the still photography it includes.”
The documentary, is titled “Diana: The Witness in the Tunnel.” It focuses on the role the paparazzi played in the car crash that killed the princess, her friend Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur nearly 10 years ago. In addition, the documentary also focuses on the photographers who were arrested the night of the accident.
A statement on the network’s website says the film poses questions such as “Did the photographers chase Diana to her death in the Pont d’Alma tunnel?” and “Were they too busy taking pictures to call the emergency services and did their presence hinder those services?” The statement goes on to say that network executives “acknowledge that there is great public sensitivity surrounding pictures of the victims and these have not been included.” (Basically, they left out the goriest pictures of a dying Diana.)
“We do not show, nor have we ever considered showing, Diana’s final moments,” reads the Channel 4 statement.
I doubt that brings much comfort to the two surviving offspring of the late Princess. I do feel bad for Princes William and Harry as they struggle to preserve the privacy and dignity of their mother’s last minutes. For the record, according to their spokesperson, neither William nor Harry have seen the documentary, and frankly they are hoping that no one else will tune in to watch it either. In their words the Princes call the film “wholly inappropriate.”
Channel 4 executives say they respect the princes’ opinions, but maintain the photographs used in the documentary “are an important and accurate eyewitness record of how events unfolded after the crash.”
I have no desire to see any of the reportedly gruesome photos. Do you?
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