Princes renew Diana photos plea

Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the Princes' private secretary, spoke of the emotional hurt screening the images would cause the brothers as the broadcaster stood firm over its decision to show the controversial pictures in the programme being aired on Wednesday night.

In a television interview, Mr Lowther-Pinkerton appealed to the documentary makers to think again. He said the Princes had decided "long ago that one of the great duties of their life is going to be to protect their mother's memory, and this I'm afraid clearly infringes that".

Asked why the Princes could not ignore the programme as other royals have ignored allegations made against them, Mr Lowther-Pinkerton replied: "These Princes are protecting their mother's memory, it's a different context entirely, and they are deeply distressed by it and have asked me to tell you that."

The images due to be screened include one of Diana receiving oxygen from a French doctor as she lies dying, but her face is obscured. Other pictures include the wrecked Mercedes and a view through the back of an ambulance in which the Princess was treated.

Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, who wrote to Channel 4 appealing on the behalf of the Princes, said: "It is their mother's last moments on earth and it's an invasion of her privacy. They are chipping away what little dignity there is in death."

He added: "We are not objecting to the documentary, we are objecting just to these photographs. The photographs tell a story, the story could be equally well told by talking heads, the doctor himself describes the scene very, very vividly. There's no need to distress these two young men in a way that these pictures will..."

Julian Bellamy, head of Channel 4, confirmed that the pictures would still be used despite the Princes' request. He said: "We have weighed the Princes' concerns against the legitimate public interest we believe there is in the subject of this documentary and in the still photography it includes.".

Kevin Lygo, the director of television and content at Channel 4, said in a letter to Mr Lowther-Pinkerton today many of the photographs had already appeared in the British media, including in a BBC Panorama documentary.

He added: "What you are asking us to do would create a dangerous precedent in that it would have a serious impact on the legitimate and important ongoing coverage by news programmes and in documentaries of high profile tragedies like 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings, or accidents in which public figures have died, where there is the entirely responsible use of archive stills or footage depicting the immediate aftermath of the tragedy but where the dead or dying are, quite rightly and in accordance with regulatory provisions, not shown or identified."