Shining the light of truth on the death of Diana

Disgusting. Nasty. Sickening. These were just some of the pronouncements made in advance of Channel 4's showing of Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel. The documentary about the last moments of the princess's life featured pictures taken at the scene by press photographers.

As it turned out, what viewers saw were some grainy, mainly black-and-white shots in which it was impossible to distinguish very much. In the picture that had attracted the greatest prior condemnation, the one where Diana is being given oxygen, her face was blanked out. All that could be discerned was the canister and the doctor.

Sound, fury, claim and counterclaim, mass hysteria countered by reason before the giddy whirl starts again - the reaction to this documentary could be almost a general summary of the post-Diana period. Ten years on, Diana retains her place as the most talked about woman in the world. That is just one among many reasons why Channel 4 was right to show this film.

The Witnesses in the Tunnel was a forensic attempt to explain the frenzy of that night in Paris, and it was a scrupulously fair piece. As one of the photographers said, taking pictures of Diana made a good living for many people. So, when her car drove away from the back door of the Ritz, the photographers naturally followed the money. Yet, as the film made clear, not one of them was near the car when it crashed. The Mercedes carrying Diana spun out of control after coming into contact with a white Fiat Uno that has never been traced. It was several minutes after the impact that photographers arrived on the scene.

This was not how it was presented in the immediate aftermath of the accident. The paparazzi were accused not only of causing the crash by "buzzing" the Mercedes on motorbikes, but impeding the efforts of the emergency services afterwards. Horrific if true.

Yet, as several eyewitnesses said, that was not the case. Among them was the doctor who tended Diana at the scene. He confirmed that pictures were being taken, but he was not hampered in his efforts.

There may be people who consider that the photographers should not have pressed the shutters in any event, but in that situation instinct takes over. Reality doesn't have a rewind button. There's no time to debate right and wrong; that can be done later. A split-second judgment had to be made in the most appalling of circumstances. For all that the photographers knew, the princess was going to survive. They could no more hesitate in doing their job than anyone else who swung instinctively into action that night.

The late princess is not the only person to be photographed in such circumstances. Footage of JFK's assassination is among the most widely played. Images of death and dying appear in newspapers and on television regularly.

Charities use distressing images to raise awareness and money. War, disaster, accidents, crime: terrible events occur every day and have to be witnessed. The alternatives, turning away or denying reality, diminish the victims and the truth. Diana's sons, understandably, don't see it that way. They argued, via their private secretary, that the film would cause acute distress and that the photographs were a gross and unwarranted intrusion into their mother's last minutes. Yet the material was handled with the utmost sensitivity, and it was vital to see it in order to come to an understanding of what went on.

The princes have a right to make their objections known, but the photographers who were arrested and detained for two days also have a right to their say. In some cases, neither they nor their careers recovered from the misplaced fury that came their way. As one of them put it: "We were served up on a plate."

Instead of objecting to the telling of their story 10 years on, we should be wondering why it has taken so long. That takes us back to Diana, a woman whose life and death continue to resist final explanation. Whatever the outcome of the English inquest - if it ever starts - it will be disputed by those who cannot accept this was a terrible accident caused by a drunk driver going too fast in a car in which the passengers were not wearing seatbelts.

It could take generations before the late princess stops being a news story and passes into history, there, perhaps, finally to be understood. In the meantime, she is stuck in the middle, her reputation still fought over. Her sons are part of the fray. How else does one explain the concert for Diana that will take place in July?

As painful as it may be, it is better that the myths surrounding Diana are tackled. One of the most enduring is that the press were to blame for her death. The reality, as the Channel 4 documentary showed, was different. Cameras sometimes lie, but in this case the truth was plain to see.