The Sun Gets Its Exclusive Interview With The Sole British Female Sailor Released By Iran, Paying Handsomely For The Privilege Of Getting A One Day Circulation Jump, But The Public Is Not Happy That The Military Allowed The Captives To Profit Financially From Their Drama

As several of the sailors and marines were offered financial deals by the media for their stories, a huge uproar has erupted in the UK whether this is right. Permission for the captives to sell their stories came from the defense minister himself.

But after the hue and cry, the Defense Ministry capitulated, it announced a review of procedures for the future, but meanwhile while these captives could keep whatever monies they received, payment for stories will not be allowed in the future. Defense Secretary Des Browne explained, "Many strong views on this have been expressed, but I hope people will understand that this (allowing the payments) was a very tough call." He admitted, " "All of us who have been involved over the past few days recognize we have not reached a satisfactory outcome. We must learn from this."

He said the Navy basically had to choose between a rock and a hard place. It could have kept to the time-honored policy of not allowing active military personnel from selling their stories -- but somehow the information would have gotten out for pay without the Navy's involvement -- or it could recognize that 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 consequences of the potential payment involved."

The two most prominent views seem to be best summed up as, “She suffered enough for this money” to “She was on a military operation, she is paid to put herself in danger, she should not profit financially from it.”

But there is a third view – that the spin doctors at the Ministry of Defense are getting pretty smart these days. With the news conference last week and the request to leave everyone alone after that while they recuperate, it would mean the story would be off the front pages this week. How better to keep showing Iran in a bad light on the front pages and over the air than for the media to pay big money for exclusive interviews, gleaning the horrors of captivity not told before. That should stick the knife in!

ftm background

RFE/RL and VOA in Russian Sights
International broadcasters are increasingly backed against a wall when it comes to finding easy broadcast licenses for the taking. Governments can prevent access to distribution or, at the very least, make life very uncomfortable for local media affiliates. The enduring rule of media and politics is that no government takes criticism easily, particularly from foreigners.

New Orleans Media Ban Overturned
CNN sought and was granted a restraining order against US authorities in New Orleans.

“Bad Guy” Interview Throws US ABC TV Network in Hot Water
Russian authorities complained bitterly about an interview broadcast on ABC News “Nightline” with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev. “I am a bad guy, OK,” said Basayev in the interview with journalist Andrei Babitsky, broadcast July 28th. “The Cechyan people are more dear to me than the rest of the world. You get that?”

It’s Not Every Day A Swiss Newspaper Prints A Story Confirming CIA Secret European Prisons and Says Damn the Consequences, and Its Not Every Day That The Swiss Army’s Prosecutor And The Attorney General Open Separate Leak Investigations That Could Cost An Editor and Two Reporters Up To Five Years in Prison
The big story in Europe before Christmas was that the CIA operated clandestine prisons in eight European countries where it was questioning Al-Qaeda suspects and secretly flew the prisoners through European air space. Condoleezza Rice basically confirmed to European governments there had been clandestine flights, but “What prisons?” and the host governments named said, “No way.”

Iraq The Most Deadly Journalistic Global Assignment; “Stay Away” Says Chirac
The Iraq war and its aftermath claimed 61 deaths through the end of 2004 and more news media were killed in 2004 globally than any time since 1994.

To American eyes it is probably the least the British could have done. The US is not pleased because the British have decided to stop such on-board ship searches in Iraqi waters that resulted in the Iranian action until the Royal Navy has completed an investigation into what went wrong and how to make sure no such kidnappings occur again. To US military eyes that means the Iranians have won – smuggling of Iranian arms into Iraq now have a far better chance of success in the short-run without those British boardings.

Naturally those media that didn’t pay for stories are decrying those who did. That includes interviewing the mother of a female British soldier killed in Iraq last week, “If you are a member of the military, it’s your duty to serve your country. You should not expect to make money by selling stories,” Sally Veck told The Times (like the tabloid Sun, the compact Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch).

The Independent complained editorially of “A system that pays next to nothing in compensation when someone is killed in the line of duty, but allows released captives to earn many times their salaries from their experience “ Turney is said to earn around £30,000 annually and the interviews will earn her more than three times that. The conservative Daily Telegraph weighed in, “Giving permission for this media circus falls way below the standards we would expect from the Ministry of Defense.”

From a purely journalistic business outlook, Faye Turney is probably the best thing to have happened to The Sun in a very long time. British tabloids in particular have been very hard hit in recent years by circulation declines. Even giving away DVDs doesn’t seem to do the trick any more. But what has been successful is getting back to journalistic roots – coming up with the truly exclusive exclusive. When it happens, which is not very often these days, it can add six figures to the newspaper’s circulation that day.

In other words, the public is still quite willing to read or look at pictures in print, if there is something there that they can’t find elsewhere. The Sun’s story on Monday, however, is also on its web site. So why buy The Sun in print when one can read for free on its web site Faye Turney saying:

“One morning I heard the noise of wood sawing and nails being hammered near my cell. I couldn’t work out what it was. Then a woman came into my cell to measure me up from head to toe with a tape. She shouted the measurements to a man outside. I was convinced they were making my coffin.”

Why give a quote like that away for free at a public news conference when you can sell it for cold hard cash, especially when your annual salary is less than one-third of what was on offer for the exclusive print and TV interview?

The do-gooders are out in force saying whatever monies the captives make off their interviews should be donated to military charities. The Sun said Turney was giving some of her fee to such a charity.

The Sun, however, is sensitive to criticism about paying for the story and it wheeled out its “security adviser” who was a former “SAS (military) hero”: He wrote, “Most recently commentators are indignant that the Brits are talking to the Press about their ordeal. Don’t they realize that if they remain silent about their treatment then Ahmadinejad has succeeded in his plan to fool the world? Talking to the Press is the right of people in the free world. If the Ministry of Defense banned the group from talking, details about their capture would drip out from family and friends. Letting Faye talk was the best way to put a lid on the situation. It was their decision for her to talk – not hers. Any criticism about payment received by the group is unfair.”

Sounds more like that was written by the editorial page editor protecting the Sun’s checkbook journalism rather than by a “security adviser”, but so be it.

But there is some evidence that the British press – usually ever eager to open their checkbooks for exclusives – also had some qualms about paying for this story. Maybe the captives had shot their financial value by giving the public news conference and there wasn’t that much more that the media thought could be gleaned from exclusive interviews (except from the lone female and she was not at the news conference), or maybe there some fear of a public backlash against such payments.

According to The Times several captives thought they had financial deals for the Sunday newspapers – the largest circulation day – and yet those deals -- not at very high prices -- strangely faded away. Some of the captives said they didn’t want money for their stories and one, in true military and journalism tradition, accepted free drinks from journalists at his local pub for telling his story.

A reading of the considerable number of comments posted on the national newspaper web sites indicates an overwhelming view that the British public does believe this was one step too far in checkbook journalism, and the government is roundly criticized for allowing it to happen.

As one commentator asked, “What next, do we find those new three-piece Iranian suits given to the captives being flogged on EBay?”