U.K. Bans Sailors From Selling Accounts of Iran Ordeal to Media

Scott Hamilton

The military personnel have been banned from selling stories to the media pending a review of the existing rules which allowed news organizations to pay two of the 15 naval crew freed by Iran for interviews.

Service personnel will not “be allowed to talk to the media about their experiences in return for payment” until the review is complete, Defense Secretary Des Browne said today in an e- mailed statement.

The 15 Britons were detained in Iran for 13 days after being seized by the country’s Revolutionary Guard in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq for allegedly trespassing into Iranian territorial waters. The British government said they were in Iraqi waters.

Lawmakers criticized the Ministry of Defense’s decision to allow the 15 personnel to be paid to talk about their ordeal. Faye Turney, the only woman in the group, sold the story of her captivity to News International Ltd.’s tabloid Sun newspaper, and to ITV Plc, which will televise an interview later today. Arthur Batchelor, 20, gave an interview to the Daily Mirror newspaper.

William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, said allowing former captives to quickly sell their stories would result in the loss of dignity and respect for U.K. forces, the New York Times reported yesterday.

“The Naval officers who had the responsibility of looking after the young people detained in Iran saw that the pressure on them and their families made it inevitable that some of them would accept media offers to tell their story in return for payment,” Browne’s statement said.

Review

In a televised news conference on April 6, six members of the group said they were kept in solitary confinement for much of the time.

It was reported the group may make up to 250,000 pounds ($490,163) in total, with Turney likely to get about 100,000 pounds, Agence France-Presse said. In an excerpt of the ITV interview, she declined to specify the amount and said some of it will be donated to naval families from her ship, HMS Cornwall.

The review would look at the consistency of the regulations across the different armed services, their clarity and whether they are right for the modern media environment, Browne said.

“All of us who have been involved over the last few days recognize we have not reached a satisfactory outcome,” Browne said. “We must learn from this.”

The ban “is a complete admission that the Ministry of Defence has completely mishandled the situation,” opposition Liberal Democrat defense spokesman Nick Harvey said in an e- mailed statement.

Browne had been “aware of the decision” to allow the personnel to strike deals with the media, the Royal Navy’s second sea lord, Vice Admiral Adrian Johns told the British Broadcast Corp. today. The Liberal Democrats will press for Browne to come before the House of Commons to explain the decision, Harvey said.

“This is nothing to do with the money at all,” Johns told the BBC. “It is allowing the individuals to tell their story in their own words, in their own way.”

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