MoD ban on troops selling stories

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The Ministry of Defence has banned personnel from selling their stories to the media until a review of the rules governing the issue is completed.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said the review was aimed at making rules consistent across the armed forces, and right for a "modern media environment".

It follows a row after two Navy crew members held in Iran sold stories.

Leading Seaman Faye Turney sold her story to ITV1's Trevor Macdonald and the Sun newspaper.

Some of the reported six-figure sum for the interview with Leading Seaman Turney will go to navy families.

Relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq last week have criticised the decision by the Royal Navy to allow the crew to sell their stories.

The mother of Eleanor Dlugosz - the 19-year-old army medic from Hampshire killed - did not criticise the crew, but said her daughter "wouldn't have wanted any monetary gain for herself" for serving in Iraq, "only perhaps donations to Royal British Legion".

Mr Browne said he recognised the dilemma faced by the Royal Navy.

"Should they refuse to give them permission to accept payment, recognising that some of them would find ways to tell their experiences anyway, without the support and advice of their service, and therefore with greater risk to themselves and crucially also at risk to operational security?

"Or should the navy accept that in this particular and exceptional case, and in the modern media environment, they should give permission for these young people to tell their story precisely in order to stay close to them but accepting the consequence of the potential payment involved?"

He said he hoped people would understand it had been "a very tough call" for the navy, but "all of those involved over the last few days recognised we have not reached a satisfactory outcome".

Until there was clear guidance for the future, no further service personnel would be allowed to talk to the media about their experiences in return for payment, he added.

Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Adrian Johns defended the decision to allow the sale of stories.

"We thought it was very important indeed to let these people tell the story in their own words and through the media," he said.

'Unsavoury' sale

The crew returned to the UK on Thursday after 13 days in captivity

Both of the officers among the captives have said they do not plan to profit from the story.

Lieutenant Felix Carman, who was among those held, defended Leading Seaman Turney's decision to sell her story.

But he added that he found it "slightly unsavoury" that his fellow captives are being paid to tell their story.

He later told Sky News that it was a "shame" that the release of the sailors had coincided with the deaths of four UK service personnel in Iraq.

But, of Leading Seaman Turney, he said: "She has taken the money, she is safeguarding her daughter's future. I would like to see what the critics would do in a similar position."

The Sun newspaper has defended its decision to pay Leading Seaman Turney.

The paper's defence editor, Tom Newton-Dunn, who refused to reveal how much she was being paid, said: "She has a right to do this.

We are a free country. Faye has been through the most extraordinary ordeal, which is clearly graphically illustrated."

Two-week ordeal

In the Trevor Macdonald programme, to be broadcast at 2000 BST on Monday, she defends her decision to sell her story and says a percentage of the money will help the crew and families of HMS Cornwall.

"I was offered a hell of a lot of money for my story. I've not taken the biggest offer, I've gone down...because I wanted to speak to yourself and the Sun because I knew my point would be put across.

"I want everyone out there to know my story from my side, see what I went through," she told the programme.

She also said that there were times during her two-week ordeal when she cried herself to sleep.

Meanwhile Arthur Batchelor, 20, the youngest of the British sailors to be held captive, told the Daily Mirror about his "nightmare" at the hands of his captors and how he "cried like a baby" in his cell.

He told the newspaper: "A guard kept flicking my neck with his index finger and thumb. I thought the worst, we've all seen the videos. I was frozen in terror and just stared into the darkness of my blindfold."

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6538921.stm

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Soldiers and sailors are underpaid. Let them sell their stories.

[almaty 19]

i agree..the leaders will one day

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

i agree..the leaders will one day

An even better point!! I think that's a universal truth linking all politicians.