Members of the Armed Forces have now been banned from selling stories to the media after the row over two of the Iran hostages who were given permission to be paid for giving their account of their capture and detention in Tehran.

A separate review of the media handling of the Iran hostage affair, carried out by Tony Hall, a former BBC director of news and current affairs, now chief executive of the Royal Opera House, concluded that it was wrong for the stories to have been sold.

Mr Hall’s report, which was published in full yesterday, said: “For the future, serving personnel, both military and civilian, should not accept payments for talking to the media or the public about their work.”

The report added: “There should be no exceptions to this rule. The acceptance of payments from the media offended the public and their view of the special place of the Armed Forces in British life. And it also ran contrary to what the Armed Forces believe they stand for — the team versus the individual, and selfless service on behalf of the nation.”

“That the decision to accept payment caused such anger and concern was entirely understandable,” the report said.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has accepted all the report’s recommendations. He has already apologised for failing to overturn the decision to let Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, sell her story to The Sun and Tonight with Trevor McDonald on ITV1 for a reported six-figure sum.

Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, 20, sold his story to the Daily Mirror and invited ridicule when he revealed that the Iranians had taken away his iPod after he was captured.

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord, yesterday made his views clear on the carrying of iPods on boarding party operations in the Gulf. “That was wrong,” he said.

After examining who was involved in the decision to allow the two sailors to sell their stories, Mr Hall admitted that he had been unable to find a single individual who could be blamed, because no one appeared to have taken sole charge of the media-handling arrangements. He said that the arrangements had been left to Fleet headquarters in Portsmouth, which was unable to make strategic decisions. This should have been the MoD’s responsibility, Mr Hall said. The lack of clarity on who was authorised to make the decision about selling the stories, and on how the decision was taken was one of the main lessons from the episode, Mr Hall said. “This was a collective failure of judgment or an abstention from judgment, rather than a failure of judgment by any one individual,” he said.

He added: “Many people were consulted or involved, but very few took a clear view, and nobody clearly took control of the issue. Many people could have said no [to the story-selling proposal], and nobody did.”

Mr Browne was told of the proposal but was required only to “note” the Royal Navy’s decision. He did this on Good Friday. Many of the officials who would normally have been involved were leaving the MoD for their Easter break.

Mr Hall said that the relationship between the Forces and the media had suffered because of this episode and earlier incidents, and he recommended that the overall relationship between the MoD and the media “be looked at afresh”.

Shanty verdict

At an Army versus Royal Navy football match last month, the favourite song, to the tune of What shall we do with the drunken sailors, with a chorus line referring to Leading Seaman Faye Turney was:

— What shall we do with the captured sailors?
What shall we do with the captured sailors?
What shall we do with the captured sailors?
Ear-lye in the morning.
Chorus: Ooh’ray and Faye is gopping [ugly]
Ooh’ray and Faye is gopping
Ooh’ray and Faye is gopping
Ear-lye in the morning

— The second verse refers to the stolen iPod, belonging to the youngest captive, 21-year-old Royal Navy Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, who complained to the Daily Mirror that the Iranians took it from him:

Take away his iPod and make him blubber
Ear-lye in the morning

— The third verse teases the sailors and Marines for wearing suits provided by their Iranian captors:

Put him in a suit and make him smile
Ear-lye in the morning

— The fourth verse has a go at the two servicemen who sold their stories to the newspapers:

Give ‘em forty grand and hear them snivel
Ear-lye in the morning

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• TV bidding war starts over Olympics
• Sofas were larger than life in TV adverts
• Driver pays fine with wheelbarrow of pennies