Channel 4 upsets some over 'Diana' pics

[faceless]

Channel 4 in row over Diana crash pictures

Friends of the princess are furious at the decision to broadcast a documentary containing graphic images of the Paris car crash
Vanessa Thorpe, David Smith and James Robinson
Sunday May 27, 2007
The Observer

Graphic images of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, are to be made public for the first time next week in a Channel 4 documentary that has been condemned as 'grossly intrusive' and bound to cause distress to Princes William and Harry.

One photograph shows Diana receiving oxygen from a French doctor, Frederic Mailliez, who had been travelling in the other direction and who had not yet realised the identity of his famous patient. It is clear that the princess has been thrown forward into the footwell behind the driver's seat. At the front of the car, a passing student is shown trying to help Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana's bodyguard.

In the explicit images of the interior of the car, the face of the dying Diana has been blanked out, as a concession to their highly sensitive nature. Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel, to be shown on Wednesday 6 June, also contains testimony from photographers and other witnesses to the 1997 accident who have never before been interviewed by the British media. The programme looks set to embroil Channel 4 in fresh controversy after last week's censure by the broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, for 'serious errors of judgment' in its handling of the race row involving Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in the reality TV show Big Brother

There have been calls for Andy Duncan, C4's chief executive, to stand down. Patrick Jephson, Diana's former private secretary, expressed revulsion at the use of graphic photos in the new documentary. 'I'm profoundly shocked,' he said yesterday. 'I don't know what they think they will achieve by it. I'm very unhappy they find it necessary to show this sort of detail.' His views were echoed by Anthony Holden, the author, Observer critic and friend and biographer of the princess. 'It's grossly intrusive and beyond the bounds of anything remotely tasteful, and will no doubt upset her sons enormously.'

Holden said he was aware that such pictures existed but that the media had acted responsibly in self-censoring them. 'One has heard about British journalists looking at them and not only refusing to publish them but wiping them from the system so people in the office could not be voyeuristic. I didn't think anyone would sink so low as to broadcast or publish them,' he said.

There were calls for action against Channel 4 from Lord St John of Fawsley, a friend of Diana and a founding director of Sky TV. 'I think it's terrible and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves,' he said. 'They certainly shouldn't be subsidised publicly to follow up such causes. The best thing that could happen is that their public funding be taken away instead of going towards programmes like this.'

St John added: 'I thought Diana was going to be left in peace, but Channel 4 is doing this for ratings or commercial gain and it's really horrible.' Clarence House declined to comment on the programme.

Channel 4 made clear it has no intention of pulling the programme. A spokesman said: 'There is a genuine public interest in examining how events unfolded in the hour or so after the crash, and the pictures taken by photographers who were at the scene at the time are an important and accurate eyewitness record which people should be able to see. Channel 4 carefully and sensitively selected the pictures used in the programme to illustrate the photographers' eyewitness accounts.'

He added: 'We don't think the pictures are intrusive and we have thought very carefully about the sensitivities of the families involved. Appropriate action has been taken to avoid unwanted intrusion into the privacy of the families.'

William and Harry are known to be braced for an avalanche of attention-grabbing books, documentaries and press articles in the build-up to the 10th anniversary of the crash that killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed and their chauffeur, Henri Paul, on 31 August 1997.

Some photos in Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel show the exact positions of those surrounding the car during the minutes following the accident in the Pont de l'Alma underpass. One picture, taken seven minutes after the crash, appears to demonstrate once and for all that the photographers on the scene were standing back and not impeding first-aid attempts. Another dramatic shot shows a suspect line-up of the seven photographers who were detained on the night by the French police.

Some of the interviewees say they have been permanently affected by what they saw in the underpass. 'It was the event of the century. We were there, but we did not want to be there,' said Nikola Arsov, one of the French news photographers who arrived after the crash but were temporarily among the implicated paparazzi thought to have chased the car into the tunnel.

Onlookers closest to the wreckage recount how they were at first convinced that the princess would survive, and several add that they did not see any evidence of serious intrusion from the paparazzi. Picture editors for news agencies and newspapers also explain how quickly they made the decision to hold back the photos they had received once news came through that Diana was gravely ill.

Philip Armstrong-Dampier, who produced the Channel 4 documentary for ITN Factual, said: 'We got the access because we took a long time earning the trust of the people we spoke to. Most of these people - particularly the photographers - have not spoken since that time. This was partly because they felt unable to do so and partly because some of them were being pursued through the courts.

'Some of the pictures we used came from passers-by, others from the police dossier of the images seized at the time. I hope the film shows how the case against the photographers snowballed and how they have been tarred by it all.'

Along with condemnation there were calls for Channel 4 to co-operate with the much-delayed inquest into Diana's death. Mohamed al-Fayed, the Harrods owner who has never accepted the official explanation of how his son and the princess lost their lives, said yesterday: 'Their decision is not only highly distressing, it cannot possibly serve the case to find the truth of what happened that night.

'If Channel 4 wants to demonstrate its responsibility in this matter, it should hand over this material to the new coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker - the only person who should have access to it. It would then be his decision whether or not to show these images to the jury.'

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Personally I don't see any value in this at all. Hearing that any human was thrown into the front footwell of the car is bad enough, without showing pictures of it. Still, I'm sure it will get a lot of viewers - possibly including myself even in spite of my opinion at the moment...

[major.tom]

Is the attached photo a screencap of the mentioned program? I think it goes far enough in giving a clear image of the damage done by the crash without the need to go further. I don't think I've seen this photo before and, quite honestly, don't know if I could stomach anything more graphic.

That said, I don't think heads should roll over the program. As the (now dated) saying goes, there are two dials on the tv... Those who think they might find the images disturbing are perfectly free to not look without taking the decision away from everyone else.

[faceless]

the pic is just one that I found on google - it's enough for me too... what more is required in any sense?

[SpursFan1902]

This was on CNN Headline this morning. I can't fathom wanting to see these photos, but I guess there are those who would. I feel bad for her family, brothers and sisters as well as kids, this has just got to be horrible. My mother died about 2 1/2 years ago and a very close friend almost a year ago and I just can't imagine having to go thru all of this hulabaloo every year. The anniversary is hard enough without all of that!

[Skylace]

I'm with you SpursFan. I feel for the family in friends in this situation. It's hard enough to move on when something like this happens but to have it constantly gone on about. The wounds never even get a chance to close at this rate.