British Military Personnel Prohibited From Selling Their Stories To The Media

Remember the hue and cry back in April when the lone British female sailor, among the 15 sailors and marines released by Iran after a week of captivity, sold her story to the Sun newspaper and to ITV for a figure thought close to £100,000. The military said it was ok, the public thought otherwise, the government backtracked and did what it always does when it is in a muddle – it ordered a review.

Tony Hall, former BBC director of news, has now given the government his report on what the policy should be and he says the “For Sale” sign should be taken down permanently. The government says it agrees and will implement his recommendations  immediately.

The bottom line: “Payments to serving military or civilian personnel for talking about their work should simply not be allowed.”

Defense Minister Des Browne told Parliament he accepts the recommendations. Brown was in hot water in April after he had agreed to the military’s recommendation that the released personnel should be able to sell their stories, against normal procedure, because of the exceptional circumstances of what had happened.

That did not go down well, however, with the families of military personnel who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and a few days after saying the personnel could sell their stories Browne told Parliament he had changed his mind and asked for a an independent report.

The media had been most interested in Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the lone female the Iranians had captured. She had been segregated from the rest of her colleagues in Iran and Iranian video often showed her smoking and gave the contents of two letters she wrote. But when she and her colleagues returned from Iran and gave a news conference she was not present. And the Sun and ITV got their paid exclusive.

Hall’s report criticized the Defense Department – meaning Browne – for letting the payments occur in the first place. “Tony Hall makes it plain that on the question of whether payment should have been made for individual stories, there was a ‘collective failure of judgment or an abstention of judgment. In my earlier statement to Parliament, I accepted this failing as my responsibility and apologized to the House (of Commons)”, Brown told lawmakers.  – June 20, 2007

Keywords:buying exclusive interviews,UK media

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