Princess Diana Death Photos: What Harm Can They Do?
WANT to see photos of the dying Princess Diana? Of course, if you wanted to, you already have. Chi magazine published them years ago. And Channel 4 published the crash photos in 2007, in piece of tabloid telly called Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel.
Said the broadcaster:
“These photographs are an important and accurate eyewitness record of how events unfolded after the crash.”
Well, they are as accurate a witness any photos can be.
Lord St John of Fawsley, a friend of Diana and a founding director of Sky TV, said Channel 4’s broadcast was “terrible”.
“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.”
Our position was that if Diana’s death can prevent others from travelling at speed without seatbelts, might some good come of the tragedy?
Present the whole thing as a public safety video with an appeal to a charity at the end and watch the critics vanish.
The TV news is full of pictures of death. Why should Diana’s body be exempt from the usual media demands?
The BBC has led with the story of Osama Bin Laden’s death for days. The story goes that we need to see the photos. The media demands it. Bin Laden was largely a media figure, existing to many of only through his broadcasts. He played the game and the media wants to show the end of it. Diana was the celebrity princess. She learned to use the media as the media used her. Isn’t it right we see the end of the show?
Now the Diana death crash photos are back in the news. You can see them at the Cannes Film Festival in Keith Allen’s – get this – “provable conspiracy” film Unlawful Killing.
Will you be shocked? It is unlikely. Anyone looking for the photos will want to see them. Anyone who knows the film contains graphic images will have wanted to see them and sat down in the cinema expecting to see them.
The trouble is that what we want to see is the actual crash. The photos after the event are just that – photographs taken after the mother of the heir to the throne had died.
Posted: 12th, May 2011 | In: Key Posts, Royal Family Comments (18) | TrackBack | Permalink
