Prince Harry (L) and Prince William. Photo / Reuters
LONDON - Princes William and Harry pleaded in vain with Channel 4 today not to broadcast graphic photos in a documentary about the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash 10 years ago.
The princes said the photos were "a gross disrespect to their mother's memory."
But Channel 4 said it had weighed their concerns against the legitimate public interest of the documentary and will still be broadcasting the images in Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel tomorrow.
In a letter written by their private secretary, the princes asked Channel 4 to remove from the programme several images depicting the crashed car while Diana was still in the wreckage and pictures of a medic administering emergency treatment.
Senior royal aide Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton said the princes "believe the broadcast of these photographs to be wholly inappropriate, deeply distressing to them and to the relatives of the others who died that night."
In a letter to Channel 4 executive Hamish Mykura, he wrote "If it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel, would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation so want it?
"These photographs, regardless of the fact that they do not actually show the Princess's features, are redolent with the atmosphere and tragedy of the closing moments of her life."
Channel 4 said in a statement today: "We believe ... the photographs and the assembled interviewees provide the most detailed and credible eyewitness account yet delivered of an event of international importance that for 10 years has been obscured by claim and counter-claim.
"They support the first-hand testimony of passers-by and the photographers at the scene who have been publicly criticised and condemned for their behaviour that night."
Diana died along with her companion Dodi al Fayed when the car driven by their chauffeur Henri Paul crashed in a Paris road tunnel while being chased by paparazzi on motorbikes.
Last year, the princes lashed out angrily at an Italian magazine for printing a picture from the crash.
"We feel deeply saddened that such a low has been reached," they said at the time, in a rare statement.
Milan-based magazine Chi defended its decision to run the photo, which showed Diana slumped and dying in the mangled Mercedes moments after the crash.
- REUTERS
