Diana's accident: overnight coverage

there is no news of her condition and as yet the report is unconfirmed it's also reported that a passenger in the princess's car was killed one report quoting French police says it is her friend Dodi al-fayed it's also reported that the driver of the princess's car was killed I repeat that these reports are unconfirmed we will bring you more news as soon as we have it we are getting reports that Diana Princess of Wales has been badly injured in a car crash in France French radio is saying that the accident happened in Western Paris when the car in which she was travelling collided with another vehicle in a tunnel the princess is reported to have been taken to hospital there is no news of her condition and as yet the reports are unconfirmed it is also reported that a passenger in the princess's car was killed one report quoting French police says that is her friend Dodi al-fayed it's also reported that the driver of the princess's car was killed I repeat that these reports are unconfirmed we will bring you more information when we have it of course there'll be more news reports over on BBC one a look now at the weather here on BBC two with Rob McElwee it's been reported in the last few minutes that Diana Princess of Wales has been seriously injured in a car crash in Paris a man believed to be the Herod's heir Dodi Fayed is reported to have been killed the accident is believed to have happened as the car they were traveling in was going through a tunnel on a road alongside the river CIN French officials say the couple were being chased by paparazzi we'll bring you more details on this as we get them yes Nick as you said the princess has been visited in hospital according to French police sources by the French Interior Minister and by the British consul in Paris but we still don't have any information on how seriously she's been injured yep we have to assume that she's been quite bad where is he we have to assume that she's been quite badly hurt because of the death of Dodi al-fayed who was sitting next to her in the car and the death of the driver what we don't yet know is how many other people were involved as you said a police were still at the scene more than an hour after the crash occurred cutting other people free from the wreckage and there was a bit of a pileup within the tunnel where the crash took place George for the moment thank you very much indeed well on the line from Paris is our correspondent Kevin Connolly Kevin what are those details you're getting the very latest is that you've engaged the seriousness of this crash or the fact that people are still being cut from some of the vehicles involved inside the tunnel that runs under the pond down on one of the expressway that runs beside the river sin we are still only being told that the princess of wales is seriously injured although i suppose some encouragement must be taken the fact that she has been visiting the hospital already and as you know already her companion Dodi al-fayed and the driver from the Ritz Hotel in Paris were being told we were being told very soon after the accident happened had been killed so obviously a very grave accident still no concrete word on exactly what the condition of the princess is but perhaps some indication that there are grounds for optimism for the fact that she's been visited Buckingham Palace is alluding to the fact that she was being pursued by photographers photographers in Paris do have a reputation for being very aggressive in this kind of situation what is your perception of how they do work in a situation like this well there is no doubt that not just in France but elsewhere in Europe too perhaps particularly in some parts of France in this very competitive freelance photography market where a single image can make many many thousands of pounds international stars as the Princess of Wales has become our the subject of almost intolerable pressure their movements are very very closely monitored the paparazzi always seem to know where they are chasing them hounding them even is standard practice it's been being said from the very first moment that details of the crash began to emerge but that is in effect how it happened if that is confirmed as police took put together a more accurate picture of how the crash came about then clearly there will be great anger not just at Buckingham Palace but across Britain and elsewhere in the world - Kevin Connolly in Paris for the moment thank you very much indeed and I'm now joined by James Whittaker who is the royal correspondent for the mirror newspaper James we were hearing there from Kevin the kind of way in which the the paparazzi do work in this kind of situation from your experience how much evasive action tends to be taken by those like the princess in this kind of situation yes a great deal of action is taken but when she is driven in this country she seems to have drivers I know one of whom is very senior ex Copeland Yard who is highly trained to move with the passenger on board than in a very fast positive manner but never to put her life at risk and I find it so wrong to say that the paparazzi caused this accident I mean I don't know the circumstances of it but there's one thing with the paparazzi of following a carload of them apparently very often you know they work on motorbikes on their own anyway okay that's not much fun but the driver doesn't have to drive in such a way that an accident is then caused it's trite to say that it's their their fault on this and I would the I would okay I accept that it's not a lot of fun but to blame the paparazzi completely it's the old old business of when something goes wrong blame the press okay James well let's not blame the press let's merely say that Princess Diana in the car with Dodi al-fayed was at least being pursued in some p.m. by by photographers who traditionally in Paris tend to be pretty aggressive and let's let's leave it at that for the moment but when when Princess Diana has been driven around in the past how often is she actually driven or has she been driven by those who have very precise training advanced police drivers for example well of course when when she was the Princess of Wales up until her divorce which is almost exactly a year ago yes she had drivers who are highly trained they were trained by people from the Hendon School of motoring they were also taught by there were that themselves the Prince of Wales and Diana have been taught by SAS trained people how to reverse cars past they themselves not just their drivers who of course are trained to they are given pretty extensive training as to how to move very fast through traffic in a safe manner I have to say that I've known the princess for 18 years or so now and I remember her as a very young person 18 or 19 years old when she first came on the scene with the Prince of Wales in 1980 that 17 years ago she herself would drive very fast again to avoid photographers and press in those days she herself is an actually fast fairly aggressive driver but of course she wasn't properly trained she has since been trained to do this and the people who do drive her now oh they highly tuned I don't know about the French person at all who did it maybe he didn't have the sort of training that the princess would have had from people in this country who drove her but inevitably we have to talk about this because it is about the security R of Princess Diana what is your you've been following her now as you say for so many years but you've actually watched her from the kind of pens where journalists have to be kept you watched her you've travelled in the same planes as her you've also been able to compare how she's been able to operate recently compared to when she was formerly still married to Prince Charles has there been a loosening and acceptance that in some way she has something of a normal life now which means that she doesn't actually have to have the kind of security you've just been describing indeed well of course I've felt if you remember I think it was December 92 she actually abandoned all security that was provided by the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard she never had SAS people used to say SAR Serano they don't it's it's Metropolitan Police she dropped them she said that they were restricting her life she didn't want them and she has not had an official bodyguard since the only time she does is when she's on an official engagement or when she travels overseas on official business or when the boys are with her William and Harry and she has security then because they're there to provide it for the Prince William and Prince Harry not fair but of course as they're nearby they also look after her so she chose not to have this sort of security but on planes yes I've traveled with her on planes people's provide security for her without her asking for it I mean for example she goes on a flight on a British Airways aircraft there will be a security man from BA who's sitting pretty close to her to make sure nothing untoward goes on in fact in the few years since she's given them up I think there's been a very little unnecessary attention certainly from the public on her I remember once she was in a shop in in Smith's I think it was in Kensington High Street and somebody came out pastoring her saying you're you're the Princess of Wales aren't you and she it was fun I can't remember what that sounds and she rather bashed him away and said no no no that's not me I mean it was a sort of white light to get rid of them but in fact there have been very very few incidents where she has been pestered I mean she's very quick-witted herself next she can she can talk her way out of things pretty well she has this enormous charm where she can get rid of people too it's sort of work for her we have to discuss security now James not to betray it but because it obviously is an issue at this moment when you look at the last few months and particularly what has happened since she began her friendship with Dodi al-fayed particularly when people like you were down in the Mediterranean with her on her first trip to the Sun when the first signals came through that relationship of some kind had been building what was your impression then I think that was my Yorker and then later around Sardinia of how much security there was with her or was it that discreet all that minimalist that really they wanted me it was obvious that they were security they in fact it was in some to pay when she first went on holiday with Mohamed al-fayed his wife honey and of course dirty was there plus other children of mr. al fayeeds yes you could see these quotes heavies around the beach there would be two or three of them because mr. al fired himself has a lot of security he is as many people have said a controversial figure and he needs a lot of protection or he feels he does anyway yes one was aware of them very much being there but she also had a securities supplied by Scotland Yard on this occasion because of course the boys William and Harry were with her so they were around too but they do it very well the Scotland Yard people it's not over the top and I always have a feeling that others who are not trained particularly with the royal family are rather heavy-handed I mean I understand that mr. al fayed security are ex-sas people tough as blazes and very good in a brawl but I'm not sure they're particularly the right sort of people to be protecting members of the royal family or even ex members like Diana was Scotland Yard people are pretty good they're very trained in it and they're not obvious in fact they look smarter often than the principles they're meant to be guarding they're beautifully dressed they have good manners and they dress exactly right for each occasion they don't look like guerrillas James Whittaker while we've been talking we have been seeing pictures the latest pictures coming in from the scene the pond Alma in Paris where there has been an accident involving Princess Diana in which her friend Dodi al-fayed has been confirmed as being killed we can now get the latest details from Paris from one of our other correspondents in our studio here Jorge Arnie Jorge what is the latest information you are getting we haven't heard anything new from Paris in fact in the last five or ten minutes there has been some reaction from across the Atlantic where President Clinton and his wife Hillary were informed about the crash and about the injuries which Princess Diana has sustained there on vacation at Martha's Vineyard on the East Coast they are said to be very concerned and have asked to be kept informed about the progress of the princess but there's been no information at all about the nature of her injuries all we know is that the French Interior Minister and the British consul in Paris have visited her in hospital but we don't know how seriously she's injured yet nor do we yet know how many other people were involved in the crash in the tunnel we do know that of course that her companion Dodi Fayed was killed as was the driver of the car we know that Princess Diana's bodyguard was injured as well as the princess but there were a number of other people involved in the wreckage after the pileup occurred in the tunnel we don't know how many of those may have been injured or indeed killed George for the moment thank you very much indeed well I'm now joined from another of our London studios by the BBC's former royal correspondent Paul Reynolds Paul you probably heard the end of a conversation I was having there with James Whittaker the royal correspondent of the mirror newspaper who travelled and has travelled like you recently with Princess Diana him for up to 18 years and he we were discussing their security what is your impression of the risks that have been taken by Princess Diana in recent months with these kind of trips she's been making with Dodi al-fayed well I think the question you know that we want answering at the moment is whether this crash was caused by a car chase involving the paparazzi the photographers who invade her life especially the moment because of her relationship with mr. al fayed over the last a few weeks well James Whittaker who you might have heard just before you got into the studio there was saying a moment ago that he rather resented the suggestion that it was the paparazzi let's say the French paparazzi who were the cause of this because this happens all the time yes I'm not laying the finger of blame at this stage and the one will have to wait for police reports from Paris but this is the you asked about security the first thing one has to say is that the threat to her security such as it is it seems to come from the photographers there's a lot of money to be made from her she's a very important target for them I'm not at all surprised that they knew she'd arrived in Paris from the Mediterranean with Dodi al-fayed they must have been following her around town it's interesting that she had a driver and a bodyguard we don't know who the bodyguard was at this stage was interesting that she felt and he felt that they needed these people with with her because they are followed all the time and of course one can't say in Paris what causes that crash because those roads along the Seine run very very fast indeed and any kind of accident is liable to lead to a pileup as it has done in this case I've just been told that Prince of Wales has been informed and therefore one assumes that their two sons have also been informed but I was listening to an eyewitness earlier a French eyewitness at the scene now he and he wasn't entirely clear as to what had happened but he did refer to mr. Al Fayed being dead he said that he thought that Donna had walked away from this crash because she said something he saw a woman who looked like her talking and obviously in a distressed state but the indication he gave was that she was able to walk at that stage now if she's also received visits from the interior minister and one of the British embassy staff that would indicate that she would be in a fit state to receive visitors so you at the moment we're trying to check whether this my witness is correct of course it can also be said that in this kind of situation the Consul would be informed immediately yes it would be interesting to know whether he is the British consul technically responsible for any British national at whichever level whether they actually the British Embassy knew that she was in town I'm sure they knew she was in town she is still regarded as a very important person she's still in fact regarded as a member of the royal family so it's not quite sure whether she's a full member or not but nevertheless I'm sure the embassy must have known though it's possible that she flew in without without the name but I I think they must have known and certainly they would they were told very soon afterwards could I then just ask you Paul about what I was discussing with James a moment ago on this issue of Scotland Yard and British security in a situation like this what is your perspective in recent months about how she has been handling this and the kind of demand she has made or the kind of rejection she's made on security given that certainly here in London when she went off to her fitness courses in her hours when she was doing those kind of exercises she certainly did Drive herself she did well she's been living in this very grey area where the very phrase she is regarded as a member of the royal family doesn't sort of tell you whether she is or she isn't and therefore how does he seem publicly and legally and also by its cotton yard well she is in this very grey area as James said she dispensed with her own guards some time ago they do appear on official occasions and she said when Lee and her sons are with her but you know this could be a consequence of what her wanting a more free life and yet those photographers will follow her everywhere she had an incident here recently where a member of the public actually intervened and ripped the film from a photographer's camera at her request so she's constantly being followed around by them she is their number one target and she is not in a clear position as to whether she should have protection she doesn't want it private reasons on public occasions she does but it's those private occasions that the photographers are after Paul stay with us for one moment because I'm now joined by Nick Higham our media correspondent Nick welcome to the program we were talking to James Whitaker the royal correspondent for the mirror newspaper and he was very resentful of the instant accusation that what we loosely call the paparazzi the freelance photographers who've been going around Paris as they do with every leading figure might have been to blame for this what's your perspective on this yes well of course he would naturally think that it does look as if there was at least one photographer who was present at the at the scene of the crash one eyewitness says that within by her reckoning five seconds of the crash there was a photographer taking pictures of what had happened and that would tend to bear out the suggestion that at least one photographer on a motorbike had been trailing but the car and the scenario that has been painted is of a car which was being driven too fast in an attempt to get away from a photographer now we don't know for certain that that is is is the case but it is clearly quite possible and I think it is without a shadow of a doubt that the princess has been or ever since her marriage and particularly in recent years of intense interest to photographers and and the paparazzi as they're called there is very large sums of money to be made from photographs of the princess one American magazine paid two hundred thousand dollars just the other day for the North American rights to the photographs of her with Dodi al-fayed and if you are the freelance photographer who is lucky enough to get a particularly good a particularly revealing photograph then you can make a great deal of money and for that reason she is constantly pursued so whether or not they were involved in litigating in this case I think it's a it's fair to say that she has lived her life for many years now under the pressure of very intense scrutiny from the media and the attentions of photographers but Nick we were hearing from Paul discussing with the former royal correspondent Paul Reynolds a moment ago this gray area in which she has found her partly by her own wish when he came to security we're now talking about a gray area when it comes to photographers because of course there had been difficulties with some of the British newspapers over her being stood stalk pursued stalked some would say and here we have the problem of freelance photographers who technically other Holden to nobody except those who choose to buy their pictures at the end of the day yes I think the people who tend to do the stalking are freelance photographers you have to distinguish here between the kind of coverage that you get in the newspapers at the end of the day and the people on the ground who are actually doing the job the people who tend to go around with the long lens cameras trying to snatch photographs of the princesa that with all kinds of locations amid all kinds of times by and large are freelance paparazzi the star photographers from the British newspapers tend to be rather more organized the the royal family down the years has developed a system of corralling journalists as it were offering them photo opportunities and offering them occasions in which they can talk to the Royals or take photographs of them and that's the system in which the staff photographers of the British newspapers for the most part participate and they do go off on their own and try and catch the snap unauthorized photographs but it's principally the paparazzi who do that now that's very difficult to the police because even if the newspapers in Britain went by some of the photographs these people take and they weren't because they believed that it would be going too far and invading the Royals previously to publish them there are always magazines and news birds in other parts of the world who will pay as I say very large sums of money Nick for the moment can we just pause there because I am now joined by another of our Paris correspondent Steven Jessel and we have new pictures Stephan of the wreckage in the tunnel pond Alma which is just to the west of the center of Paris Steven what information is coming through to you in Paris well very little at the moment we know all these we think we know that there are two dead in this accident that is Dodi al-fayed and the driver of the car there are two in the princess who is supposed to be seriously injured and the body garden we do not know the state of his injuries at the moment it was them I think you'll probably see from the pictures a nasty accident several vehicles were involved the princess's car was very badly damaged she has been taken to hospital the interior minister jean-pierre Chhavi no more the head of the Paris police Philip Missoni and a senior official from the British Embassy have gone to the princess's bedside we don't at this moment know which hospital she's in nor do we know the extent of her injuries how dangerous are these underpasses we do have pictures reminding us of the scene well intrinsically they're not particularly dangerous all big cities with heavy traffic problems have under passes there are many along the banks of the Seine going in both directions they become dangerous clearly if you have a car being driven at high speed by somebody who's trying to escape the attentions of paparazzi Oh with your yoga wear your other guest was talking about we can't say at this stage exactly what happened it isn't known whether it was a head-on collision or whether the thing but the car bounced off a wall or whatever but there is nothing intrinsically dangerous about a an underpass when it becomes dangerous is when a car has to maneuver at high speed in dangerous circumstances one of these suggestions from the images I'm looking at is that the car may have been going the wrong way down this tunnel always being swung around very violently that I I can't comment upon it would be an extraordinary maneuver to try and do a u-turn in the middle of one of these tunnels I know them quite well I Drive that way occasionally myself it would be especially at midnight on a Saturday evening where there is an enormous amount of traffic some of it involving people are not wholly sober it would be an extremely dangerous maneuver to undertake it may be that the shock of the the impact simply spun the car around but at this stage we just don't have enough information to really to speculate usefully about it even here we have the interior minister jean-pierre Shevin more actually going to the hospital what do you read into that well the princess died is even Princess Diana Diana Prince as well is a a figure of world standing only the other day lamorne drowned though with a very serious newspaper ran an entire page of an interview with her some of the statements attributed to her were later denied by kinder by by the princess's private office so I think most people think the article was a fairly accurate reflection of of what she said the fact of the matter is that the princess is the mother of the future King of England as such she is a extremely senior and important figure on the diplomatic scene and I don't think it's at all surprising that the mr. ship element has gone there though as it happens he is a well-known Republican and not a great believer in royalty but it's his duty as the as the equivalent of the Home Secretary in Britain as the senior minister in charge of internal affairs after the Prime Minister it would certainly be his duty to take an interest in the case which involves so hope hire so high-profile a figure as the princess how much coverage has this all been getting in in France her visits and her relationship with Dodi al-fayed relatively little it depends which bit of the press you're talking about I mean there is a scandal press in France magazines such as Wesleyan gala and so forth who were who will take and Perry master Sami said we'll take almost anything on the princess and pay very large sums of money for it the more sober press is is less excited by her there was a good deal of comment about the fact that a British newspaper appeared to have computer-enhanced a picture to show her in a more intimate conversation with mr. fired than was in fact the case if you looked at the original that was commented upon but more as a an example of what the British press will do now it was not known that she was in Paris and certainly it hadn't been publicized so clearly the paparazzi knew as I understand that she didn't get here until Saturday afternoon she was staying at the Ritz which of course is owned by mr. Fayed's father and but by and large she doesn't excite the the vast coverage she gets certainly in Britain certainly the more serious newspapers here but it is interesting that it was mourn'd of all people and all magazine all newspapers are daily which is regarded as one of the heaviest of heavyweights in France and in France was granted some kind of access even though someone who was denied yes I mean there was there's no doubt at all that the interview took place and there's no doubt at all that she spoke freely on a number of issues this has been put in context the LeMond was has been running a series of articles relating to very famous pictures pictures over the last 10 or 15 years pictures which caught the world's attention and there was one which involved the princess and the reporter wrote and said can I talk to you about this and I think some of the reporters surprised down a road back and said yes you may and so the the interview took place she does not give interviews to the British press she gave a famous television interview but that that was about it so he was as you say on the face of it slightly surprising that if she wanted to go public she should do it into a French newspaper but I think she took the view quite rightly than a Monde is a very serious newspaper and wasn't going to treat her remarks in a sensational way Stephen Jessel our correspondent in Paris stay with us we're just going to recap now on the news on which we've been talking in the last few minutes welcome to BBC News I'm Nik gowing Diana Princess of Wales has been seriously injured and her companion Dodi al-fayed has been killed in a motor accident in the French capital Paris it is not clear how badly the princess has been hurt a driver from the Ritz Hotel was also killed and the princess's bodyguard is said to be badly injured after a high-speed car chase involving press photographers Britain's Princess of Wales has been seriously injured in a car crash in Paris the princess's companion Dodi al-fayed and the car's chauffeur were killed in the accident a bodyguard in the car was also badly injured the French news agency says the French interior minister jean piaget venom oh and the British consul in Paris have both visited Princess Diana in hospital the accident happened late at night in a road tunnel which carries an expressway under a bridge at the plas doma across the river sen reports say a vehicle carrying the princess and her entourage was being chased by a carload of paparazzi photographers police say her companion The Millionaire film producer Dodi al-fayed and the driver were both killed but the princess and her bodyguard were seriously hurt a number of other vehicles were also involved in the accident police were still at the scene some hours after the crash you can see the location there in the tunnel under the pond Alma where they've been cutting victims in other cars from the wreckage the princess was divorced a year ago from her husband Prince Charles after a stormy 15-year marriage a spokesman for Buckingham Palace in London noted that the incident occurred while the couple were being chased by paparazzi and said in their words it was an accident waiting to happen now we can return to our correspondent in Paris Stephen Gesell Stephen let's just pick up if we can the basic details for those just joining us at this moment - on BBC News what we know further about the incident in the tunnel under the pond Alma which is just to the west of the centre of Paris what we know is that sometime around midnight a car containing four people a driver a security guard the princess and her companion Dodi Fayed was in a tunnel at the Pont de l'alma which is just just slightly to the west of the Paris it was involved in what was clearly a very serious crash it is said it is reported mr. Fayed is dead as is the driver of the car the princess has been badly injured it is reported so has the bodyguard they the car appears to have been involved in a pileup with a number of other vehicles there are some reports that it may have hit a wall at least several other vehicles have been involved and the police are still on the scene the princess has been taken to hospital she's been visited there by the interior minister jean-pierre shivoham' or the british consul general and apparently the prefect of police the head of the Paris police it is not yet known which hospital she's in we've had no report at all as to the extent of her injuries how serious they are how long she'll be in hospital but we do know that there has been a serious accident on a stretch of in a tunnel on the stretch of road in the tunnel not in itself an unsafe stretch of road but it is said that the car was being pursued either by a carload of paparazzi which is to say freelance photographers desperate for a picture they could sell or according to some other reports by people on motorcycles that's slightly more likely actually and that's about all we know at the moment Steven just to clarify this location the pond Dalmar is very close to the Eiffel Tower for those who know Paris yes how far is it from the Ritz Hotel which is owned by the al-fayed family oh not far I mean it depends which direction they were going and I assume from the tunnel they were they were probably going west but they would have had to have good the the Ritz is is off the Rue de Rivoli that's that's it's not very far but it has to remember that on a Saturday night there is a great deal of traffic in Paris it's a busy city and even in the holiday season which is coming to an end so I mean I've been down that area at that kind of night and there is an awful lot of traffic so moving at high speed at that time well yes it might well be and not all the drivers necessarily entirely sober at midnight which is when the accident occurred it's not intrinsically dangerous but it's not a place you would want to be involved in a high-speed chase in Steven Jessel our correspondent in Paris for the moment thank you very much for updating us on the latest news from the French capital well let's pursue some of the other issues which have now emerged since the news of the accident happened I'm joined now by Nick Higham our media correspondent we were talking about half an hour ago about this issue of the paparazzi Nick and it does appear the Buckingham Palace is still saying or indicating that that could have been a cause of this accident do you think that this is now going to be a serious problem or is it something which really will be accepted as part of everyday life whichever way this now developed yes I think if you're someone like Princess Diana it's been a serious problem for many years along with a relatively small number of international stars and and and people who can be guaranteed to appear in in in gossip columns and magazines around the world are the object of this very very intense scrutiny they are pursued or stalked by photographers with often with long lenses often on motorbikes princess has been involved in a number of altercations down the years with with photographers and cameraman there was one occasion last year when she was visiting the home of a therapist and she attempted to run away from a group of photographers who were standing in the street waiting to picture her as she came out I think it was earlier this year there was another altercation in a London Street when a man came to her rescue a passerby came to rescue when she accosted one of these photographers seeing images of her in Bosnia a couple of weeks ago when she visited Sarajevo just after one of her more recent meetings with Dodi al-fayed in the Mediterranean when she went on this demining operation yes of course this is an example of the princess using her undoubted celebrity and the fascination that she has for newspapers and and photographers and television organisations around the world to positive end I mean she does have something of a love/hate relationship with the the media she does dislike intensely the way she is pursued but she's also aware of her own value she's also aware of the fact that there is intense interest and she hasn't in the past used this in to help various good causes various charities and her campaign told landmines which is what took her to Bosnia and took her earlier this year to Southern Africa campaign to get landmines banned there's a very good example of how using that celebrity she the very fact that she goes to these countries and and is is pursued is a guarantee that the issue will suddenly go to the top of the political agenda in any number of countries because photographs of her will be published everywhere and and and people will have to take note so she's not beyond using celebrity and there are people who say that one at the same time she dislikes the intense pressure of being constantly in the public eye but does rather like constantly being photographed in glamorous poses and attractive dress isn't appearing in newspapers and magazines and on front covers and and I think the fact that she is aware of her own celebrity has not made it easier for her she does find it very difficult not to smile for the photographers when she sees them not to put on a put on a show what make let me bring in our former court correspondent of the BBC Paul Reynolds who joins me from another of our studios in central London Paul can we just take up that point that Nick Higham our media correspondent was making what's your guess and we can only guess at the moment about whether she sees this kind of visit to Paris short notice a reasonably short visit as something which is totally private and she wouldn't ever expect to see a photographer there well she'd certainly expect to see them because after what's happened in the last few weeks with her friendship with mr. Al fired she knows perfectly well that every move she makes is followed would she be expecting to be able to evade than though Paul she might have a try of course we're making a 1 or 2 assumptions that they were trying to evade the press and that might be unfair on the photographer's that as Steven was saying earlier that traffic in Paris along there's motorways along the sand moves extremely fast and any number of things could have happened but of course one has to say that possibility is that they were traveling fast to try to get away from the photographers we don't know yet we'll have to wait what further police reports on that but yes this is a constant thing she will certainly have known that they were there they must have picked her up hours before and they'd been at the Brits apparently and she must have known they were there so however she arrives in a place like Paris or indeed London whether it be on private executive jet or somehow incognito on a scheduled flight it is virtually impossible that she could actually get into the country unseen it is virtually impossible these days there is an industry has grown up around her and which depends on her and which makes a lot of money out of her and of course the very private moments which she wants are those very moments which the photographers want as well Paul for the moment thank you very much indeed we'll take up those issues in a moment but first let's get the latest information and the details of what has happened in Paris from Maxima Winnie who joins me from the International decima team Nick as you've been hearing Princess Diana has been seriously injured we hear that she's been treated in the emergency room of a Paris public hospital her companion Dodi al-fayed is dead his father Mohamed al-fayed who's the owner of the Harrods group in London we believe is on his way to Paris now by helicopter but the Herod spokespeople are not confirming or denying reports of the accident no one is really speaking there's a tight lid being kept on all of this at the moment very little information from Buckingham Palace as well apart from one comment related to those reports that the paparazzi had been chasing the car in which the princess and Dodi al-fayed had been traveling they said it was an accident waiting to happen questions being raised of course about the pursuit of the princess apparently the couple had arrived in Paris on Saturday afternoon had had dinner at the Ritz Hotel which is owned by Dodi al-fayed father Mohamed al-fayed and then when they left the hotel in their car according to press reports they were chased and pursued by the media on motorcycles that's all we know for the moment Nick Maxine thank you very much indeed so just to recap that Princess Diana has been seriously hurt in a car accident in central Paris and her companion Dodi al-fayed was killed as was the driver this is the scene in Paris the location is the Pont Dalma which is very close to the Eiffel Tower on the northern bank of the Seine and the accident happened towards midnight Paris time that is the scene of the accident that one of the cars in the tunnel are under the bridge known as the pond Alma in Paris we'll bring you the latest from Paris as we get that information but first let's look at other news at this hour an American envoi has warned hardline Bosnian Serbs of serious consequences if they continue to undermine the Dayton Peace Accord Robert Gelber described recent attacks on international peacekeepers as terrorist tactics and he told supporters of Radovan Karadzic the Republic's former president also wanted for raw war crimes that Western powers will not hesitate to use force if they don't stop opposing the elected president Billy anaplastic his position has been backed by NATO ambassadors in Brussels who stressed that NATO led troops in Bosnia would not tolerate attempts to intimidate them tough-talking Americans are nothing new for the Bosnian Serbs but with the Serbs divided Western support is clearly with billion effleurage the stern words are for her enemies in parla as the pol a group has seen the development of real-life opposition in recent months it has reacted as it has reacted before in the most violent undemocratic ways the hardline Serbs have gone too far is the message and this is their last warning we won't accept promises we won't accept statements of commitment we're only interested in concrete positive results earlier in the other half of the Bosnian Serbs state 'let mr. Gelbart came to read the riot act to the hardliners accused of trying to sabotage the Dayton Agreement by defying both NATO and mrs. plough itch for the first time since NATO bombed them two years ago the Serbs were warned that force could be used again Serbs listened but appeared unmoved Monti low crush Nick said threats would achieve nothing not a Molony smores been ossified to this very importat it was Padma Gilbert and there was no response to the charge that parle was behind Thursday's attacks on NATO troops in the town of birch Coe in which two Americans were wounded the dilemma for NATO is that however much they may threaten the dissident Serbs the prime cause of all their troubles indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic remains at large and apparently well supported his continuing freedom is NATO's most awkward obstacle in the way of peace in Bosnia Jim fish BBC news the British government has won a high court injunction preventing a Sunday newspaper from publishing further revelations by the former mi5 intelligence officer David Shayler the British Home Secretary Jack Straw said that publication of material in last week's newspaper had endangered the lives of intelligence agents the newspaper denied the allegation and called the ban an attack on press freedom designed to cover-up mi5 embarrassment The Mail on Sunday rolled off the presses tonight without any further revelations from David Shayler instead the paper featured an interview with his girlfriend another former mi5 officer who's strongly critical of the way the service was run there was a clear message to for the government on the papers front page well that's very bad news isn't it I mean this is a grim day for the British press the mail on Sunday's editor was given first news of the injunction by the company's lawyers this afternoon the case was considered in private by a High Court judge after the Attorney General had expressed concern that David Shayler was jeopardizing national security mr. Schuyler spoke last week to the newspaper and to Newsnight about his activities as an mi5 officer today's injunction was described as political censorship I cannot understand why this action has been taken the men on Sunday last week was extremely responsible about what it disclosed about mi5 it disclosed nothing that put any agents at risk whatever the director general of mi5 might claim the government says it has no wish to stifle debate about the security services but the sensitive information published by The Mail on Sunday left no alternative we can't have a situation where the lives of British operatives or the fight against terrorism is put at risk it was put at risk last Sunday by The Mail on Sunday we could get no guarantees whatever which were meaningful that he would not be put at risk again this Sunday civil liberties campaigners believe the government is resorting to the law without proper justification unfortunately it's very easy for the government to waive the national security flag and for the courts to adopt that and for nothing whatsoever to be published even though some of it I'm sure was in the public interest senior executives of Associated newspapers are considering whether to appeal against today's ruling but that's unlikely to take place until a full injunction hearing which is expected at the high court next week Paul Newman BBC news at The Mail on Sunday Britain and the Philippines are to take joint action against so-called sex tourists who visit the Philippines to abuse children in Manila the British foreign Kotori Robyn Koch signed an agreement which will allow both countries to exchange intelligence on known or suspected child abusers britain is also to operate a training program for the Philippines police from Manila our diplomatic correspondent Nicolas which'll now reports nighttime in one of the red-light areas of Manila the clubs are crowded the hustlers and prostitutes are busy and somewhere in the shadows are foreign pedophiles who come to Manila from all over the world they're attracted by the Philippines Street children tens of thousands of youngsters some little more than infants who are vulnerable and in many cases available to unscrupulous adults a foreign secretary visited a refuge which cares for such children the youngsters performed the street children's song children are human to say the words entitled to the human right of a safe life mr. coke called the sexual exploitation of children an unforgivable crime he apologized for the fact that two of the three foreigners so far convicted in the Philippines for child sex abuse came from Britain and he had a warning for any other British pedophiles thinking of coming here if you come here we will catch you and you will be punished these children are being protected not just by the Philippine authorities who are doing excellent work but also by the British priests to agreements were signed one to authorize extensive cooperation between the British and Philippines police to identify and track known or suspected pedophiles the other the British to train the Philippines police in the investigation of child abuse cases mr. cook and local officials said they hoped the agreements the first of their kind would be a model for other countries so much does depend on implementation but for their part the Philippine authorities insist that they are determined to stop foreign pedophiles from coming here if they do come and if they are quarters should now be more likely they face long prison sentences or even the death penalty Nicholas ritual BBC News there's been another surge of volcanic activity on the Caribbean island of Montserrat the latest eruption came as the first practical emergency aid was being brought ashore from Montserrat our correspondent Ben Brown reports Montserrat volcano erupted again today sending a vast mushroom cloud of ash spiraling over the island and reminding everyone here of its enduring power avalanches of gas and molten rock rolled down the slopes in an area that's already been evacuated so the authorities hope no one's been killed or injured the volcano has been relatively quiet for the last few days but now it's sprung back into life monster Asians have learned through painful experience never to take it for granted and the scientists here have told them it could be lethally dangerous for years to come more people did leave the island today but the evacuation program has now changed British officials are no longer laying on special boats instead they're giving evacuees vouchers which get them seats on the usual daily ferry crossing to Antigua some Islanders who are staying even though they're now homeless live in schools which means that children won't have anywhere to learn when their new term starts next month an outrage according to Montserrat Chief Minister it is one thing we do you must not cause any impediment the education of your children and your health programme this weekend emergency British government aid has been arriving in Montserrat in the shape of prefabricated buildings on saw rations though are angry that other aid programs have been frozen by Whitehall which is waiting to see how many of the population are left before it plows more money into this island Ben Brown BBC news sponsor as well we can now return to our main story about Diana Princess of Wales who's been involved in a serious car crash in central Paris the princess is said to have been badly hurt in the crash which happened in a road tunnel by the Sen in the French capital French police have announced the Princess Diana's companion The Millionaire Herod's heir Dodi al-fayed was killed in the accident the car chauffeur died and a bodyguard was injured according to reports the princess's car was being pursued by press photographers on motorcycles when the accident happened the princess has been taken for emergency treatment to a public hospital in the French capital she has been visited by the French interior minister and the British consul according to the French press agency the princess has suffered concussion a broken arm and serious cuts to her thigh in this accident well for the latest we can join Maxime our winni at the international desk let's just recap on the details of those injuries Maxine yes NIC what those saying is the princess is in the intensive care unit at the southeast Paris hospital she has concussion a broken arm and apparently serious cuts to her thigh the British ambassador Sir Michael J is at the hospital and quote is in control of the situation the British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been awakened and is being kept informed of what has been going on now the princess's companion Dodi al-fayed the son of the Herod's boss Mohamed al-fayed was of course killed in the accident we believe now from reports that Mohamed al-fayed is flying to Paris by private helicopter at this moment to be at the scene the chauffeur was killed as you said and The Bodyguard was seriously injured and is being treated in the same hospital as the princess we can see the pictures there of the crash itself the scene of the crash had occurred in the tunnel you can see some of the damage it was several hours we know after the event they were still trying to remove the debris and cut some people from the wreckage obviously made doubly difficult because of the location of this crash inside the tunnel a witnesses said it took several minutes for the police and emergency services to actually get to the scene we can see there the emergency services at the scene earlier Mexico and one of the cars of course you can see the one of the cars they're badly funny yes eyewitness reports from the scenic say that it described it as a terrible accident a terrible thing smoke billowing from the area airbags which we've just seen there had exploded it does seem to have been a rather dreadful accident at a busy time of night in the French capital exactly the couple were coming in fact from the Ritz Hotel that arrived in Paris earlier on Saturday had dinner at the Ritz which is owned by Mohamed al-fayed Dodi al-fayed father and according to local Press reports when they left the Ritz after dinner in their car that's when the press chase began or the alleged press chase reports from the scene say they were being pursued by photographers on motorcycles at the time Maxine for the moment thank you very much indeed for updating us from the international desk on the latest news from Paris after the accident involving Princess of Wales Diana Princess of Wales well on the line now from Paris is our correspondent Steven Jessel Steven we understand that the princess is being treated in the intensive care unit at the pitty Salpetriere a hospital which is in southeast Paris yes Hospital no deal yes it is it's there's a street a boulevard of hospitals down in the 13th that one is small not very far in fact from where the accident occurred and Lapierre left chiesa affair is a very well-known hospital she is certainly going to receive extremely good medical care though from what is from the reports it does appear that though clearly she has been badly shaken and she has a broken arm and cuts and concussion she does appear to have escaped relatively and I emphasize relatively lightly from this accident given that two of the other people in the car were killed concussion obviously is unpleasant and she's got a broken arm and the lacerations to her thigh but it could have been a great deal more serious what kind of hospital is it Steven I it's a teaching hospital as I recall as I say there are down on the 13th are on these small damage xxx are on small series of big hospitals the French tend to go in for concentrating their hospitals in in these large units it has a very good reputation how far away from the incident at the pole always in the 30th I'm only small I would have thought that you'd have to cross the river then go down through the 50 40 I would have thought it was a couple of miles even so do a couple of miles three or four kilometres yeah she was clearly a bit in a in a in an ambulance with probably with police out riders they wouldn't have taken very long to get there and just to underline what kind of hospital is it it's a general hospital it has an accident an emergency unit but he does have a reputation as a teaching hospital it's it's it's a very large establishment with a very good reputation and not particularly specialized in accidents and emergency burb general medicine but certainly one that's well known and respected by the by the prison public now we understand that the British ambassador to France Sir Michael Jay is at the hospital and according to one report is in control of the situation you know Sir Michael well I know him I would have to say I know him well but he's a relatively new ambassador he's a career diplomat clearly made a very good impression in his first first months here it would be entirely logical for him to go as the as the ambassador the United Kingdom's ambassador in France he would be entirely logical for him to go when you say when it said that he's in charge of the situation of course the doctors at the hospital will be in charge but clearly he will be coordinating the extremely tricky business we will have to find out whether the the princess is in any condition to travel I imagine she'll want to get back to the United Kingdom as fast as possible provided the concussion isn't too serious then there's no obvious reason why she shouldn't return relatively quickly I think after the terrible experience she's had over the last few hours she'll want to get home back to the England just as soon as she can but I would have thought that being in control of the situation at the hospital is important for the British ambassador because this is now a problem of enormous proportions both in terms of the princess's condition after the the accident and also because of the management of it now well yes so there will clearly have to be a an investigation to how and why this accident happened there does seem to be a substantial consensus that it happened because the car was traveling extremely fast in an effort to shake of photographers paparazzi who was I understand that were on motorcycles rather than trailing urine in another car if you're another car it's not a particularly good way to snatch photographs because you're obviously blocked behind the vehicle you're you're pursuing there will have to be an interest in an investigation into how this happened and doubtless police might want to question the princess about the circumstances of the accident but she wasn't driving she was the passenger in the car and I don't think anybody will be in any particular hurry to detain her prevent her leaving ground so I imagine she'll want to get back and see her son's and and her family as fast as possible after an event that must leave the most awful traces for the rest of her life now we are talking about an incident involving so called paparazzi which of course is the Italian nickname for a large number of mobile photographers who tend to try and track down and follow leading celebrities like Princess Diana what's the attitude in France to these these photographers because as I know from my experience in Paris watching big events there they swoop around the capital on motorbikes at high speed frightening speed and this is not unique is it in terms of incidents which might have been caused because of the overzealousness of photographers well there is a great deal of money to be made huge sums of money to be made if you get the right picture and there have been stakeouts particularly in the South of France I'm thinking of a famous occasion in which Princess stéphanie of Monaco then-husband was photographed in a very compromising position with a Belgian beauty queen now is that the paparazzo who got that photograph has spent a very long time in extremely uncomfortable circumstances waiting to get that picture the French and the Italians it has to be said to some extent the British to these freelance photographers they know the stakes involved there are huge sums of money to be made but has there been any backlash against it Stephen well not really because the French have a have very strict rules of our private life for example in France you own your image if you don't in theory if you don't want your picture to appear somewhere you can say no and you've got a right to do that now in fact that isn't respected because certain newspapers do wriggled magazines rather do regularly publish compromising and embarrassing photographs and then they're taken to court but they're fine such small sums it doesn't actually amount to much of a disincentive it's true to say that you do not have in France anything like the British tabloid press with it with its mania for compromising and titillating photographs but let's be fair though a lot of the what you call the tabloid press use the pictures from these kind of photographers yes and some of them are French and some of them are Italian and some of the mature men and some of them are British all I'm saying is that although there are magazines like West sea and to some extent parry match who will publish these photographs they tend to appear in magazines where people know what they're going to find you don't have the bidding wars you have between tabloid newspapers in Britain but essentially there's not a public outcry I'm speaking from Britain where after all there are certain constraints or attempted constraints on this and Princess Diana has herself tried on several occasions and naturally on one occasion ripped the film out of a camera's camera man's camera I recall the incident no you don't see is that kind of thing tends not to happen in in in Paris though I can't think offhand of one or two instance where in particular well-known television news announcers by the controversial figure is alleged to have attacked a photographer who took pictures of him when he was on holiday and tore up his press card and did various things like that but it isn't perceived as quite the problem it may be perceived as being in Britain and of course there was the celebrated problem with princess meter on illegitimate daughter Mazarin well yes except that everybody when I say everybody certainly most people in the media had known all about Mazarin for years and years and years they didn't talk about it all published pictures no because there is the doubt I say there is it's more actual so there was a self-denying ordinance whereby people's private lives of people's private lives I mean there is an awful lot of fairly well-known gossip in France people in the media and so forth about the private lives of various people but it doesn't appear in the newspapers or in the magazine start because there is this belief that a private life is a private life so I bound to say that is changing Stevens at the moment as we look at images from the tunnel at the pond alma in central Paris where just before midnight Paris time Princess Diana was seriously hurt and her companion Dodi al-fayed was killed along with the chauffeur of a car which was taking them from dinner at the Ritz Hotel those are the images were seeing now on the banks of the Sen Stephen for the moment thank you very much indeed I'm now joined from another of our London studios by the BBC's royal correspondent Paul Reynolds poor you were listening I hope they're too Steven Jessel in Paris talking about the so called freedom of the image in Paris in other words people can actually own their images even if these freelance photographers pursue them here there and everywhere yes but that of course only applies in France and these people are selling pictures all around the world and so in France is a very very strict laws on privacy in Britain not so much though there is a press code of conduct here it's a voluntary code to which then in which the newspapers themselves drew up and it's supposed to stop things like long lenses being used to take pictures of people on private property that kind of thing and there is a Press Complaints Commission which does adjudicate on these things and that has tightened things up a lot but of course you know no rules in one country no law in another country again to stop these kind of photographers chasing dialer because she she has been she is such tremendously valuable material for them and it's it's a it's a market which they do well of out of and they they they dedicate their lives to it in some cases now again we don't know whether they caused this crash we've seen the pictures of the motorways and then they're very fast roads and we don't know the cause of this it could be that if the driver was from the Ritz maybe was he well trained was he a very experienced driver we'd that's another question - it - which'll also has to be found well let's say that the jury is out on that and we'll wait for the information as it comes in but what would you say about the difference in culture paul between what happens in france where we do have these large numbers of extremely mobile photographers who zoom around on their little mopeds and so on and what happens in london is there the same kind of culture even among the freelancers here well it's not so dissimilar it's not so dissimilar because of the money that can be made of course photographers here get more access to her on official functions and that keeps some of them going but there are lots of them who who do try to follow her around but of course as I say the the the British press have a code of conduct which does stop some of it but I don't want to give the impression that that you know all is good in one place and all is bad in another but it's not this is an international trade she's an international figure and internationally these pictures sell and they self of many many tens of thousands of dollars now it may be seen by summers as bad taste to even be discussing this issue of photographers when the princess's companion has been killed a driver has been killed yet this is surely central to the public debate there will be about this what view does Buckingham Palace take about this given that not so long ago we were talking about this gray area in which Princess Diana finds herself partly of her own accord yes she she the divorce took place just over a year ago I think one has to stress all along what a terrible tragedy this is for the fired family and for her because the divorce I think was a year ago on Thursday and just at the moment when she seemed to be putting her life back together again she seemed to be able to have the freedom to move around and develop new friendships and relationships you know this happens but of course people are going to ask was this accident call by the press chasing her it's gonna be a very serious issue and her spokesman Michael Gibbons who is working in London at the moment said this was an accident waiting to happen the palace fight a constant battle even on her behalf although she's no longer it's a world intimate member of the royal family she's still regarded as a member of the royal family in the official phrase and therefore they they act on her behalf and try to help her but she does have this free life and she's neither royal know she's non-royal so she's there is a gray area but she doesn't want too many officials around her too many too many men in grey suits there are those who say that there is a degree of calculation sometimes by Princess Diana about how she will allow herself to be seen by these freelancers yes there are moments when obviously she knows she's being photographed and there are the moments when she deliberately uses them and in pursuance of some public campaign yes she's tremendously photogenic and she's she knows it but the difference between that I think she would say and being chased the whole time but she knows the rules of the game the rules hasn't well exactly one of the rules surely has already been broken which is that several weeks ago we were talking to James Whittaker the royal correspondent of the mirror newspaper here about an hour ago several weeks ago when he was down in the Mediterranean and she was done in the Mediterranean they were in the same place but he was watching her from a great distance suddenly she came across and began speaking to him well enter a number of other reporters you know that these that was well so documented yes so she is now she has publicly decided at times to actually show that she knows they are there she can't afford you know everybody knows they're there she can't avoid not knowing they're there avoid knowing they're there and and she is she's in this very very difficult position she wants them she doesn't want them she she's they're attracted to her she likes the attention on occasions not on other occasions is this constant business of you know we're trying to have a private life while you're being a public figure it's a balance that she never quite got right and if this accident was caused in any way by this and I think there are going to be terrible recriminations against the press and people will be you know not just mucking Palace kinds of people in Britain I think you know among ordinary people will say well really you know you must leave her alone especially now she's suffered this terrible tragedy we were hearing from our correspondent Stephen Jessel just before we began discussing here Paul and one of the issues he did raise was this issue of the freedom of the image in France and that everyone owns their image in other words they can take legal action if they don't want a picture they know exists actually then being published could you imagine in this kind of situation that Princess Diana knowing that she was being pursued by photographers would have decided to take legal action in order to that anyway yeah that only applies in France you see those patrol these photographers are not bound just by French law there there's nothing to stop them from chasing her on the public highway and taking pictures and then selling them in Britain or Italy or and then they go back into France but yes but in the French I think the Duchess of York has successfully taken action against French magazine for publishing pictures of her while she was on private property and you can take action in France there doesn't that that's there's a separate issue bit of the publication of the picture and the gathering of the picture the gathering of the picture it's open season wherever she is really and it's the publication which which is constrained in some places but this I just come back to the basic point there is so much money to be made out of her that you know all these rules and laws have not stopped do not stop people chasing her but you know again oh I also stress you know that's we don't we don't know whether that caused the crash but undoubtedly they were there they and I witness said the photographer was on the on the scene within five seconds and maybe that was one of the people following her we don't know Paul thank you very much indeed for the moment a reminder that we are seeing pictures here from central Paris after an incident several hours ago just before midnight French time which Princess Diana Princess of Wales was seriously injured in a car crash in which her companion Dodi al-fayed was killed along with the driver of the car these pictures of one of the cars involved in the incident underneath the bridge known as the palm Dalma in a tunnel one of the fast-moving expressways on the banks of the Sen those pictures came in about an hour ago

Channel: David Boothroyd

Views: 278,018

Keywords: Diana, Princess Diana, Lady Di, Princess of Wales, Tim Willcox, Martyn Lewis, Nik Gowing

Id: OEf2zwbbc2w

Length: 72min 7sec (4327 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020