Tories call for Diana programme ban
Updated on 28 May 2007
The Conservatives are calling for Channel 4 to cancel a documentary featuring graphic pictures of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales.
Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel includes the first public airing of images taken by French photographers immediately after the collision in Paris in 1997.
The film, to be broadcast on June 6, shows one picture of Diana receiving oxygen from a French doctor and other explicit images of the interior of her car.
It also features new interviews with photographers and other witnesses to the crash.
However, Channel 4 said it believed viewers would accept the programme was a "responsible documentary" once they had seen it.
A spokesman for the broadcaster said: "These photographs are an important and accurate eye-witness record of how events unfolded after the crash.
"We acknowledge there is great public sensitivity surrounding pictures of the victims and these have not been included."
He added: "Some photographs will be of the scene inside the tunnel but in none of the pictures is it possible to identify Diana or indeed any of the crash victims.
"Only one image shows the occupants of the car after the crash and it has been appropriately obscured to avoid any unwarranted intrusion into their privacy or that of their families."
The spokesman added: "We are confident that once people have seen this film, they will agree it is a well made and responsible documentary."
Shadow Culture Secretary Hugo Swire urged Channel 4 to reconsider whether to show the programme.
He pointed out that the broadcaster's editorial policy came under scrutiny last week when Ofcom ordered it to apologise publicly for mishandling the Celebrity Big Brother race row.
Mr Swire said: "It should be remembered that Diana, as well was being a public figure, was a mother.
"This kind of coverage must be deeply distressing to Princes William and Harry.
"We would expect more from a public service broadcaster than showing sensationalist material in this way."
Diana, 36, and her lover Dodi al Fayed, 42, were killed when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31 1997 as they sped away from pursuing paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel.
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