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Wednesday, Apr 11, 2007
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International

"Media warfare" in U.K.

Hasan Suroor

Sailors put up for auction, Government told

LONDON: The British Government has been accused of trying to use its military personnel for waging a "propaganda war'' against Iran after it allowed two of the 15 navy crew, who had been detained by Tehran for allegedly entering its territorial waters, to sell their stories to the media.

On Tuesday, the Government was forced to ban further media deals after widespread criticism from across the political spectrum, senior defence officers and a host of authoritative commentators who said the sailors had been put up for "auction'' as part of the Government's "media warfare'' against Iran.

Earlier, it had permitted Faye Turney — the only woman member of the crew involved in the "hostage'' crisis — and her colleague Arthur Batchelor to sell their stories, criticising Iranian authorities, to newspapers and television networks.

Ms. Turney sold her version of the episode to The Sun newspaper and ITV in a reportedly six-figure deal, while Mr. Batchelor spoke to Daily Mirror about his two-week long "ordeal'' during which, he said, he cried "like a baby.'' Both claimed that they confessed to entering Iranian waters under duress as they feared for their lives.

Criticism

As some of their own colleagues joined in the criticism of how the two had been allowed to trade their experience for cash, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced a review whether service personnel should be allowed to accept money for media interviews.

In a statement, he admitted that the way the issue was handled had not been "satisfactory'' and "we must learn from this''. "Many strong views on this have been expressed but I hope people will understand that this was a very tough call, and that the navy had a duty to support its people. Nevertheless, all of us who have been involved over the last few days recognise we have not reached a satisfactory outcome. We must learn from this,'' Mr. Browne said.

"Serving members of armed forces have, in effect, been put up for auction in the most horribly undignified fashion, something that has not gone unnoticed overseas," said shadow defence secretary Liam Fox.

His Liberal Democrat counterpart Nick Harvey said the Ministry of Defence had "completely mishandled the situation.''

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