The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Sunday 9 May 2004

The Diana Photos

Last month my column was about the new Diana tapes. As an admitted Diana devotee, I had to admit that I find it hard to get enough of the late princess. To me, the videotapes and audio conversations offered a refreshing and unfiltered glimpse into who Diana really was.  

This month is different. This month the new picture I saw of the princess was far from refreshing but it was definitely filtered -- filtered by TV producers who lack the most basic sense of class, respect and dignity. Driven by greed and ratings, the powers-that-be at the American television network CBS, decided to air photocopied images of the Princess of Wales immediately after that fatal crash in Paris. It would be the last picture ever taken of her -- and we should never have seen it. 

I’ve never been so glad not to be a member of the media. As a graduate of journalism school and a former reporter, I’m wondering how we got to this place. There’s no question that the public has always had an appetite for the inappropriate and macabre and journalists have always been tempted by “exclusives” and news items that cross the line.

In fact, as part of my journalism education, we had an ethics class in which we reviewed different pieces of controversial videotape and discussed what we would and would not air. We decided the clip of a journalist getting shot and killed in Nicaragua would have aired, the rationale being that the reporter would want the public to know the truth about his death and the serious problems developing in Latin America. We decided the clip of a mother falling to the ground in agony at the airport as she heard her child had died in the Lockerbie plane disaster would not have aired. The video footage was so obviously a gross invasion of privacy and a violation of human dignity. The recent photo of Diana dying in that car crash falls into the latter category. 

For years, the photographs were offered to journalists and news outlets all over the world, particularly in Britain, and no one would publish them. I have no doubt they sat on the black market waiting for the highest bidder -- and no one would bite.  

So what changed? What made it seem like a good idea to publicize a picture that shows a woman in her last moments? What made them think the publicity and profit would make up for the new low they sunk to? 

I wish I knew. Too bad ethics class doesn’t extend beyond the classroom.

- Stephanie