Irwin 'wanted his death filmed'

New York: "If I'm going to die," the late 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin said in a 2002 interview, "at least I want it filmed."

He spoke with his usual humour, and clearly had no idea what would happen four years later. But the fact is, a tape does exist of Irwin's fatal encounter with a stingray while filming a TV show. And so the question arises: In the age of instant web videos, might it get out? And in the broader sense, is making footage of a death public ever justified?

For its part, Discovery Communications, the network where Irwin became a star, said there was absolutely no truth to rumors that the footage, now in possession of police in Queensland, Australia, might be released.

But that does not mean there are not concerns that someone could attempt to get their hands on it and publicise it for lurid means - or just to show they had it. That, said media analyst Martin Kaplan, would be tantamount to a snuff film.

"The only remote justification for publicising this would be accident prevention," said Kaplan, of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

"But that argument is a stretch," he added.

Experts say deaths from a stingray encounter are exceedingly rare.

Irwin died on Monday at the age of 44 after being stabbed in the chest by the stingray's poisonous spine while filming on the Great Barrier Reef.

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's funeral will be held privately within seven days, his father said on Thursday, confirming that the family had declined a state funeral for the television star.

In a short statement at the family's Australia Zoo reptile park, Bob Irwin said his son's funeral would be private at an undisclosed location, and that a public memorial service would be held within two weeks.