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Who knows about "Earl Mountbatten o
- Subject: Who knows about "Earl Mountbatten o
- From: BurmaJapan@xxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 13:53:00
Reply-To:BurmaJapan@xxxxxxx
I found this in the following article, does anyone know anything about
him??
"Earl Mountbatten of Burma"
---------------------------------------
Category: News
Date of Article: 09/06/97
Topic: Princess Diana: Victim of Journalistic
Fanaticism
Author: Sukuji Bakoji
Full Text of Article:
PRIOR to the wedding at the Cathedral of St. Paul in
London on July 29,
1981, between Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince
of Wales and Lady
Diana Frances Spencer, commoner, the ensemble of
Diana's taffeta
gown was the wedding's best-kept secret. So intense
was media
curiosity beforehand that one British newspaper
offered $70,000 to the
seamstress employed by the once obscure designers,
David and
Elizabeth Emmanuel. Even the Women's Wear Daily, the
savvy
American fashion newspaper that prides itself on
scooping famous
brides, printed an "exclusive" description that
turned out to be hoax.
For the royal couple, television lights transformed
the 2,500 attendant
guests into a sparkling mass of jewels and finery,
while broadcasting
satellites made celebrants of approximately 750
million viewers around
the world. Sixty BBC cameras and sixty more from
ITV, the independent
network, beamed Diana's every shy smile to one of
the largest audiences
ever. The BBC's panoramic coverage of the wedding
was picked up live
in 74 nations worldwide.
In the United States, for instance, Americans woke
before dawn for
countless wedding-watching breakfasts on the East
Coast and
champagne pours in the midwest, and they stayed up
for post-midnight
suppers in the West. The three American networks
shipped their own
regiments to the scene - 180 staff for ABC, 140 for
NBC, 85 for CBS. The
five-hour saturation schedule encouraged some
fatuous interviews with
nannies and publicans.
The 70-minute ceremony reverberated with striving
hymns and fanfares.
As the prince and his new princess signed the
wedding register, the
Maori Sapporo Kiri Kanawa soared into Handel's
joyous aria, "Let the
bright seraphim," from his oratorio "Samson." Then,
to the heroic strains
of Elgar's "pomp and circumstance No- 4," the couple
left the St. Paul's.
They stopped over at Buckingham Palace only briefly.
Following their
embrace on the balcony, the newlyweds attended a
"wedding breakfast"
at which 120 select guests - mostly family - dined
on loabster, lamb,
named supreme de vollaile princess de Galles.
After donning travelling outfits - gray suit for
him, tangerine suit and
tricorn hat for her - the couple took off in an open
carriage for Waterloo
Station, where a private train rolled them to their
three-day respite at
Broadlands. The secluded Hampshire estate, with 6
miles of rich salmon
fishing in the River Test, belonged to the Earl
Mountbatten of Burma,
Charles's great uncle, who was killed by an IRA bomb
in 1979.
Ironically, since that glorious day, Diana's life
had never been the same
again, it had been bedeviled by snoops. She hardly
escaped the prying
eyes of the press and later the royal neighbours. As
the years passed by,
it became apparent that she was living an amazing
double life to escape
the snooping royal neighbours in the build-up to her
divorce.
By day she carried out her charity engagements and
official duties with
the warm smile that had won over millions which
earned her the
nickname "The People's Princess." But by night the
sad and lonely
princess regularly sneaked out of her palace gates
into the darkness to
keep fearful secret trysts with her closest allies.
Or to make phone calls
on her mobile phone among the trees in nearby Hyde
Park.
She once told her closest friend that the other
royals around Kessingston
Palace were "making my skin scrawl." The friend
said, "Diana feels spied
on all the time at the palace. Every one she meets
is noted, vetted and
reported back."
In June 1992, a newspaper reporter named Andrew
Morton published a
book entitled: Diana - her true story. Diana
co-operated, through friends,
in the writing of the book which showed her trapped
in a loveless
marriage and attempting suicide to attract Charles's
attention. But all to
no avail. The first reports of the difficulties in
royal marriage was in 1985.
Consequently, in November 1995, the Princess of
Wales gave television
interview in which she admitted committing adultery
with James Hewitt
and said she doubted Prince Charles's ability to
handle the responsibility
of being king of England. The marriage hit the
rocks. So in February 1996
she agreed to the request for a divorce, calling it
the saddest day of her
life. The press went agog. There were persistent
prying eyes of
pressmen armed with telephoto lenses.
In her Panorama TV interview last November, Diana
admitted she had
loved the former navy captain, but he had betrayed
her with a kiss and
tell book. The red-haired Romeo rat had earlier told
friends that the
Princess called him every week and even sent him
flowers for his 38th
birthday in April.
Shunned by the society, Hewitt bought a $215,000
cottage in Devon with
the book proceeds and hid himself away.
As for Diana, she became the world's most
photographed woman. Last
year she was involved in scuffle with a photographer
outside a
gymnasium as she asked a passer-by to snatch the
film from the
photographer's camera. Later when she went on a
10-day holiday with
Princes William and Harry at a Provence estate owned
by Paddy
McNally, a former lover of Sarah, Duchess of York,
the press went trailing
them. She knew that a far more dangerous adversary
could be lurking
only feet away.
The man the paparazzitals had cruelly nicknamed
Inspector Clourseau
leapt into the bushes and captured the camera-
wielding intruder. But it
was merely an isolated victory. Days later, pictures
of a bikini-clad Diana
relaxing by swimming pool were flashed around the
world.
There was mystery over who took the photographs. The
Daily Mirror
credited staff man Ken Gavin. But the paparazzitals
in Provence claimed
they were the work of two French photographers
arrested close to the
royal party.
Police reinforcements were drafted to try to prevent
any further breach of
royal privacy, but the dozens of gendarmes privately
admitted that their
task was hopeless. One of them lamented: "What can
we do against 30
men prepared to match low cunning with the highest
risk to get
photographs which would earn an estimated £500,000
in worldwide
syndication fees?"
Then came the bomb-shell. It was revealed that Diana
was in love affair
with an Egyptian fella, Dodi al-Fayed. The
relationship sent tongues
wagging. The news shocked the royal family. Why? An
Egyptian would
one day become a step father of the future king of
England. But the love
affair went on unabated. Several pictures were shown
in the press which
proved the intimate relationship. Publications of
first photographs
showed Diana in warm-embrace with Dodi.
Unfortunately, last Sunday, the sun set at dawn for
the world Romeo and
Juliet. At about 4.00 am they were involved in a
ghastly motor accident
when Diana's Mercedes Limousine crashed in a road
tunnel near the
River Seine in Central Paris, killing the three
occupants - the driver, Dodi
and Diana. It was reported that they were being
given a hot chase by
press photographers on motorcycles. But when the
accident occurred,
the photographers did not hing to rescue them but
were busy taking
snapshots until the police came to the scene and got
them arrested.
Princess Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer
accused the press of
causing his sister's death in a traffic pursuit,
saying the editors who
bought intrusive photographs had "blood on their
hands." He said that he
had always expected that the press would kill her in
the end. "Not even I
could imagine they would take such a direct hand in
her death, as seems
to be the case-it would appear that even proprietor
and editor of every
publication that has paid for intrusive and
exploitative photographs of her,
encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk
everything in pursuit
of Diana's image, has blood on his hands today," he
said.
Indeed, every newspaper editor would always like to
give people what
they can't get in any other newspaper(s). How does
he go about doing it?
By finding exclusives, scoops. By digging for
exposes. By having what no
one else has. Therefore, Diana's death could be
attributed to this
phenomenon. However, the death has also spurred
spontaneous debate
(worldwide) on the right or limit of the press on
the "invasion of privacy" of
public figures just for the sake of scoops.
What is even more, people wonder the kind of
mentality or conscious
pang the pressmen have in going about finding
exclusives or digging for
exposes. Is it sheer callousness after long exposure
to the news hunt or
a necessary insulation, the kind acquired by medical
doctors? Indeed
journalism brings us the news not of world's
elsewhere but of this world,
with all its familiar foolishness and comedy, pain
and tragedy.
The mind-numbing questions The Post Express, Weekend
posed to a
cross-section of the people are: What is the limit
of the press on the
"invasion of privacy" of public figures in the
society? How would they
describe the damage done by the press in the
society? What was the
involvement of the press in the death of princess
Diana?
While answering the first question, a Lagos-based
legal practitioner,
Steve C. Nwagbo said: "It is a bid difficult to say.
But every person is
entitled to his/her privacy in the society. The
right of the press to seek
and gather news must not infringe on a person's
right to privacy? If I don't
want to be photographed, there is no reason why any
pressman should
photograph me. Diana to all intend and purposes was
a private person
and the press ought to have respected her desire to
be anonymous in the
society."
On the involvement of the press on Diana's death,
Nwagbo said: "The
press has a lot of blame for her death. From
available evidence s they
had been chasing her right from the time of
courtship with Prince Charles
to her death. It was because she was trying to get
away from the press
after dinner with her lover that the driver
over-sped. There was no serious
report of the driver's drunkenness. Perhaps the
tragedy would have been
avoided if the press had left her alone; the
accident would have been
avoided."
In the Nigerian context, Nwagbo said that the press
is prone to mischiefs.
"The press as the Fourth Estate of the realm is a
very important organ in
the society. But unfortunately members of the press,
being first Nigerians
and then part of the society, they are tainted with
corruption and general
decay in the society. The result is that the press
write and publish reports
with bias mind; they always have sympathy for the
people concerned.
There is no objectivity on their reports. The
reports contain slangs. The
government press base their reports on the viewpoint
of the government.
Likewise the private press on the view of their
owners. Reporters always
base their reports on who is sponsoring them. A case
of "he who pays
the piper dictates the tune." It is really difficult
to find any report that is
objective in its entirety. Take the issue of the
Frenchman, Philippe
Troussier, you find that the reports are purely the
opinions of the
reporters. It is a pity," he stressed.
Nwagbo's jibe at the press found credibility from
the Head of State,
General Sani Abacha who described the press as "a
purveyor of rumour,
agents of disintegration, fabricators of stories,
invaders of private closets,
celebrants of personal tragedies, unrepentant
alarmists, sectional
champions and peddlers of falsehoods."
Even the one time military governor of Kaduna State,
during Babangida
administration, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar said: "Do
not blame
soldiers for all the coups that had taken place. I
want to say that the
military and the press took over power: the military
using the gun and the
press using the pen."
But Prince Idiana Udondom, Public Relations
practitioner has different
views. Udondom disagrees with the campaign of
calumny against the
activities of the press worldwide. He describes it
as frivolous and
emotional.
He said that the death of Diana was ordained by God
and coincidental
with the action of the press photographers who were
doing their job.
He argue "When one aspires for any position in life,
one should also
know the attendant risks or implications of such
position. For example,
somebody who aspires to be a leader in the society
should know that he
becomes a public figure. So everything about such
person is of public
interest. And if one is a celebrity, like the case
of Princess Diana,
automatically everything about that person is of
public interest. So
everything should be open so as not to attract the
curiosity of the press.
So this is the mistake people make in life and
because of that journalists
are often accused of prying into the privacy of
public figures.
Photographs of celebrities are news themselves. But
that of a common
man is not."
Udondom further argued that journalists don't hunt
for anybody in the
society for just no cause. "If you know that you are
a public figure then
don't hide anything. Give the news you suppose to
give, give the
information you suppose to give and you will escape
the prying eyes of
the press. But if you try to play pranks then the
journalists are bound to
be curious about your activities," he said.
He also stated that the press has contributed
tremendously to the overall
development of the society. He queried, "if there is
no press, how will the
society look like? If everybody is allowed to do
anything he or she likes,
the society will be in chaos. There will be anarchy.
Therefore the press
shouldn't be taken to the slaughters' slab for
performing its duty as the
watchdog of the society. Perhaps the press has to do
more
enlightenment on its role so that the public will
appreciate its role in
everything."
Mike Awoyinfa, Editor of Weekend Concord and his
deputy, Dimgba
Igwe equally agreed with the views of Udondom.
Awoyinfa reasonably
argued: "How will the whole world be without the
press? How will the
world be without an entertainment newspaper? The
world will be very
very dull."
But he expressed dismay on the tragic death of
Princess Diana which
was ostensibly caused by the press. It's
unfortunate. The press was only
doing its job. It's just unfortunate that it led to
the tragedy. If the press had
succeeded in getting their pictures and flashed on
front pages of
newspapers, the papers will sell in millions; the
whole world will buy the
papers. They will hail the press. Now that there is
tragedy everybody is
blaming the press," he stated.
Igwe equally concurred with Awoyinfa. He too argued
, "the British media
are going crazy over the privacy of their
celebrities because that is what
the British public want to know and buy.