MoD criticised for allowing sailors to sell their stories
09 April 2007
The Ministry of Defence has been forced to defend its controversial decision to allow the 15 sailors and marines held captive in Iran to cash in on their ordeal and sell their stories.
Families of servicemen who have died in Iraq, and former military chiefs, have criticised the MoD's move to allow the Navy personnel to gain tens of thousands of pounds from media interviews and exclusives.
Among those who stand to benefit from the deal is Leading Seaman Faye Turney - the only woman to be captured - whose story has attracted intense media interest. An unconfirmed report said she had already agreed a deal worth more than £100,000 with ITV1's Tonight with Trevor McDonald and The Sun newspaper.
But one of the former captives, Lt Felix Carman, said any fee he was paid would go to charity. "I am not interested in making money out of this," the 26-year-old from Swansea told the BBC. "My main aim is to tell the story. There's some people who might be making money, but that's an individual's decision, that's very private, but that's not something that myself or many of the others will do."
The MoD yesterday justified its decision by arguing that the move would allow officials to have some control or "sight" over the interviews. It said the decision to sanction media interviews had been taken because of the "exceptional circumstances" surrounding the group's ordeal.
The sailors and Royal Marines were held after Iran accused them of entering its waters, a claim they denied. The personnel later said that they were blindfolded, bound and held in isolation during their 13 days of captivity. In principle, serving personnel are not allowed to enter into financial arrangements with media organisations.
The decision has caused a backlash. Mike Aston, whose 30-year-old son Cpl Russell Aston was one of six military policemen killed by a mob in Majar al-Kabir, Iraq, in June 2003, said he was "absolutely amazed" by the deal.
"Let's put it this way, regarding my son's death - and it was a very high profile case - I can put my hand on my heart and say that I've never sought or made a penny out of it in any way, shape or form. I think to sell my story would besmirch my son's memory."
Rose Gentle, whose son Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, was killed in Basra in June 2004, added: "This is wrong and I don't think it should be allowed."
Col Bob Stewart, former first British UN Commander in Bosnia, said that the idea made him "sick".
He added: "They [The Ministry of Defence] would say it's a pragmatic decision because actually those stories are going to come out - I understand that, it's just it makes me a bit sick."
"People who have lost loved ones might say, 'We have just had huge losses which can't be replaced by money and we've never profited out of it, and these people lived and many died and they were relatively safe in Iraq whereas many people in Iraq are not safe'."
Opposition politicians have been strongly critical of the move, with the Conservatives saying a bidding war would be inappropriate and undignified and the Liberal Democrats warning the strategy could backfire.
Max Clifford, the leading PR agent, said that he had been approached by the fathers of two of the 15 freed service personnel and had advised them to give the money to families of those who had been killed in Iraq in order to defuse a "backlash". Estimating that offers for the stories could total at least £250,000, Mr Clifford said that he believed at least three of the personnel had received approaches.
In response to the criticism, a statement from the Ministry of Defence said: "It was clear that the stories they had to tell were likely to have emerged via family and friends regardless of any decision the Navy took. "It was therefore decided to grant permission to speak to the media to those personnel that sought it, in order to ensure that the Navy and the MoD had sight of what they were going to say as well as providing proper media support to the sailors and marines in the same way as would have been the case in more ordinary circumstances."
The department added: "It is a fact that the media have been making direct contact with the families and offering them significant sums of money - this is not something that the Navy and the MoD have any control over."
Wages of war £100,000
The amount Faye Turney is expected to receive for her story from ITV1's Tonight with Trevor McDonald and The Sun newspaper
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