LONDON, Feb 19 — Private letters between Princess Diana and the British Government will remain secret after a ruling by the Information Commissioner.
The series of letters from the late Diana, Princess of Wales to John Major, the former Prime Minister, and Tony Blair, his successor, were deemed too private to be published under the Freedom of Information Act.
Members of the Royal Family are exempt from the Freedom of Information legislation but individual cases can be challenged on public interest grounds. The Office of the Information Commissioner said the letters were of a "personal nature" and not related to government policy.
The correspondence may be related to the announcements to the Commons by Major, as Prime Minister, that the Prince of Wales and Princess were to separate. He had been a key figure in the discussions between the couple.
It could also be in connection with the visit in May 1997 of the princess to Chequers with Prince William and Prince Harry who played happily with Euan and Nicky the sons of the new Prime Minister.
She also wrote to Douglas Hurd and the late Robin Cook when they were both foreign secretary about the possibility of an ambassador's role in landmines.
The Cabinet Office published seven telegrams from the princess to prime ministers of the day thanking them for birthday wishes, but all further correspondence was withheld on the grounds that it fell inside the exemption.
An internal review later upheld the decision, and stated that the public interest in keeping them secret "outweighed" the interest in making them public. In a statement the ICO said: "It is important to draw a clear distinction between matters of public interest and matters about which the public may be merely curious." — The Daily Telegraph
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