Chapter 36 4. The Death of the Princess and Paparazzi

In the middle of the night on August 31, 1997, Diana’s car was speeding at a speed of about 200 kilometers per hour in order to avoid a group of freelance photojournalists on motorcycles following closely. A car overturned in a tunnel on the banks of the Seine at the Pont-Main and died tragically. Her 42-year-old boyfriend Fayed and the driver who were in the same car were killed on the spot.The beauty returns to the west, and the world sighs. French police questioned seven photographers who chased Diana's car on motorcycles in order to find the culprit.When Diana moaned in pain after the accident, photographers rushed forward to take pictures, but no one thought of saving lives.The police charged them with the crimes of intentional wounding, homicide and neglect of death, and whether they only took pictures after the car accident and failed to call the police in time or even hindered the rescue work.

Due to Diana's sudden death, public opinion directed its grievances directly at the group of car-chasing freelance photojournalists derogatoryly known as "Paparazzi".Earl Spencer, who came to England from South Africa to funeral for his sister, pointed out angrily: I said long ago that she would die at the hands of those reporters, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly and undisguisedly. Diana has been the biggest catch for paparazzi and gossip from the day she married into the royal family.Every ups and downs of her private life have, without exception, become the "prey" of Paparazzi again and again.Just as she was trying to get out of the shadow of her personal life and open up a broader life, she was killed by the flying car accident.

Although she once fought a lawsuit with a photojournalist, the court ordered that she must keep a distance of 300 meters from her; even though she had begged reporters after the divorce to stop interfering with her private life and let her enjoy privacy, these are still the same. The breeze in my ears swept away.Pappalaki was spot on, and he was paid huge sums for every piece of tidbit.Some time before Diana's death, photos and news of her and her lover Fayed became the "hard currency" of the press.A photojournalist took photos of Diana and her lover Fayed on vacation in the Mediterranean in August, which sold for 4 million francs.Became a millionaire overnight, envious of his peers.

Paparazzi was already notorious long before Diana died in a car accident. Paparazzi is an Italian term, which comes from the film "Sweet Life" directed by the famous Italian director Felion in the late 1950s.In the film, the heroine, a photographer named Paparazzi, goes after any means necessary to take pictures of his idol. For a while, Paparazzi became the object of international condemnation.But after the anger passed, the result of the police investigation was that the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and the brakes failed.Paparazzi's frantic pursuit was only one factor.They cannot take full responsibility for Diana's death.

Following Diana's death, journalist Belisario wrote an article for the 1 September issue of The Times newspaper.In the 1960s and 1970s, Bellisario specialized in photographing the private lives of the royal family.In 1964, he secretly took photos of the Queen and Princess Margaret on a seaside holiday, setting a precedent for violating the royal family's right to privacy.However, what Belisario did back then is nothing compared to what it is today.Back then, he used a long lens to secretly photograph the royal family, the key is not to be discovered.Journalists today don't care anymore.They stalked Diana recklessly, wishing they could stick their cameras on the car windows.In the hunt, it is not only Diana in the car who is in danger, but also those photojournalists who trade their lives for money.

The direct driving force is money.According to a French magazine, none of the photographers who spent ten days and half a month in the hail of bullets in Sarajevo earned $2,500.But some outlets are willing to pay $15,000 a night to hire a "paparazzi" to take a photo of a certain celebrity.The tilt of the market's balance is evident. The photographer who took the picture of Diana's car accident is going to sell it to the world for $1 million.In view of the pressure of public opinion, the newspapers behaved justly and strictly refused to use Diana's death to increase circulation, and at the same time hurriedly drew a line with the so-called tabloids.

Amid the world's outcry, many reports claimed that this was the work of Western tabloid, unethical photojournalists.However, it can be found from the report of the Paris police that among the photographers detained and questioned by the police, there were two photographers from the Gamma photo agency, one from the Sygma photo agency, and one from the Sipa photo agency.The photographers employed by three of the world's most famous news photo agencies are by no means idle.Photographer Jackqui Langwie, who works for Sygma Photos, was a photojournalist for the Associated Press for seven years.After joining the Sygma Photo Agency, Langway has reported major world news such as the Rwandan massacre, the Bosnian War, the Middle East War, and the Romanian coup. The photos he took in the Middle East and China have won him international photojournalism awards. Renowned photojournalist.Claiming that the person detained and prosecuted by the police was the work of an unprofessional photojournalist from a yellow tabloid in the West is suspected of planting.

The media that are keen to publish and can pay a lot of money to buy celebrity photos are all entertainment media that have a huge circulation, a large readership, and are favored by advertisers.Serious mainstream media also often participate in the competition. For example, "Time Magazine" published Diana's photo on the cover 8 times, and "People" published Diana's photo on the cover more than 20 times.Media demand for photos of Diana was a direct impetus for photographers to take pictures. Every cent paid to buy Diana photos from photographers goes out of the pockets of readers interested in celebrity anecdotes and the pockets of advertisers interested in those readers.A media critic ridiculed: readers who only want photos and don't need photographers are too unfair to photographers.

After Diana's death, among the countless bouquets tribute to her at Buckingham Palace, there was an unsigned card that read: "I killed her because I often buy tabloids".Diana's death is like a grenade of conscience thrown to all those who love Diana and buy tabloids.But it's also unfair to shift the blame onto the reader.Tabloids go after celebrities for market demand, the problem is that readers definitely didn't ask for Paparazzi's frantic hunt.This is the newspaper's own choice. Being a celebrity is often also a personal choice.Diana was not born a celebrity either, she had the freedom to choose whether to be a celebrity or not.Diana not only chose to become a celebrity, but also used the media to confront the royal family. She once deliberately broke the news to the media, making news that the royal family did not want to see on the front page of the newspaper.

Simply blaming the photographer is unfair and does not solve the problem at its root.Photographers, media, readers and Diana should all take their own responsibilities.In this era of highly developed media, everyone is inevitably involved in the vicious circle of the media age. The famous French journalist Albert Duroy made a profound and incisive analysis of this strange circle in his sensational book "Carnival of Hypocrites".He believes that if a celebrity needs to be famous, he needs the support of the news media; if the news media wants to sell, there must be news about celebrities; and readers are often not satisfied with the news that celebrities are willing to disclose to the press, but also want to know about celebrities such as cheating and divorce. The "privacy" that I don't want to tell readers.As a result, the media began to break through the boundaries established by celebrities on their own reports, and entered the private lives that celebrities do not want to be exposed to the public.However, some not-so-famous celebrities find that "properly" exposing some of their "privacy" can not only satisfy readers' "voyeurism", but also greatly improve their popularity among the public, which can make up for their professional reputation. Insufficient in the field, so Paparazzi flourished greatly.This forms a strange circle of "money = selling celebrity privacy = newspaper circulation = celebrity reputation = money".

Paparazzi may be restrained because of Diana's death, but it will definitely not disappear. In this age of media circles, who really killed Diana? We shrugged and said: Probably a drunk driver.