The broadcast of images of a dying Diana, Princess of Wales must have been "painful" for her two sons, a former Palace spokesman has said. The pictures, taken moments after the Paris car crash in which she died, were shown by US network CBS in a programme looking at the accident. Dicky Arbiter told the BBC it was "particularly bad taste" for the network to run the pictures. But CBS insisted the photographs were "in no way graphic or exploitative". Mr Arbiter told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was surprised at an American television network running "this sort of picture". "It will be painful, painful for William and Harry. They’re going to have to live with this sort of thing for the rest of their lives."
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Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi also died in the 1997 crash, also accused CBS of "insensitivity".
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Defending its decision to show the images CBS said: "These photocopies are placed in journalistic context - an examination of the medical treatment given to Princess Diana just after the crash." CBS said the images, which had not been broadcast before, were part of a 4,000-page French government report the broadcast recently obtained. The US broadcaster said it had also obtained confidential documents relating to the crash. These reportedly include forensic analysis of the scene and vehicle, and post mortem examination of the driver and MI6 agent, Henri Paul. One of the pictures taken by paparazzi photographers at the scene - included in the official crash report - showed her head in the car. BBC Royal correspondent Peter Hunt said CBS showed the black and white images for just 15 seconds during the one-hour documentary. But, he said, Diana was "instantly recognisable" from a picture of the side of her head. British newspapers had previously decided not to publish the photographs, he added, for fear of being sued and/or publicly lynched on the grounds of taste and decency. |