Princess Diana and the media

At times Princess Diana wanted media attention and at other times she did not. When she was doing something for the betterment of the world, when she was doing charity work and meeting with the sick and the poor, she wanted media attention in order to uplift the consciousness of the world. She took her service-life so seriously. That is why she wanted the media to accompany her to Angola, the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan and other places. In the last few years, she brought the world-attention to the problem of landmines. Without the much-needed publicity that Princess Diana brought to this campaign, I feel that it could have gone on for years and years without producing any result.

But sometimes the media exposed Princess Diana’s frailties and weaknesses — which we all have — and at that time she did not welcome media attention. She said that this kind of thing does not help humanity in any way. She wanted only to inspire the rest of the world, but unfortunately the hostile media always try to find the negative side of things. That was the very painful experience that she had to endure on a daily basis.

Again, there are newspapers and magazines around the world which have always been very positive in their attitude to Princess Diana. They do not indulge in wild gossip and they try their best to defend her against unfounded and absurd rumours. One of our main New York newspapers, Newsday, is one of those that have always supported her. On three occasions this year, I sent to Princess Diana collections of articles about her which had been published internationally. All of them were extremely positive. She thanked me deeply for sending them and said that she found them very encouraging. I strongly feel that the media should concentrate on the inspiring and self-giving aspects of Princess Diana’s life, on her good qualities and virtues, and not on her so-called human weaknesses. Needless to say, most of us have deplorable weaknesses in abundant measure.