The Ministry of Defence has officially refused ITV News access to frontline troops in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the broadcaster said this evening.

ITN, Britain's biggest commercial broadcast news organisation, said it was informed that its reporters would no longer be able to "embed" with British military units because ITV News was unwilling to retract its coverage of how wounded soldiers are treated on their return to the UK.

As The Times reported on Tuesday, ITV News was told on October 18 that it would not be granted access to frontline soldiers on a trip to Afghanistan planned for Remembrance Sunday, traditionally an opportunity for positive coverage of the armed forces.

ITN was sent a list of complaints from the MoD about "Betrayed? An Investigation", a series of broadcasts made last week about the medical care offered to wounded soldiers returning to Britain from the front lines.

This evening ITN announced that two days of talks had failed to resolve the complaints - the most serious of which was that a soldier had his privacy breached when he was filmed being taken off an aircraft. Mark Wood, chief executive of ITN, denied that the man was identifiable.

"ITN has made every effort to respond in full to these complaints and rejects them as unreasonable and unjustified. It does not believe there is any justification for the punitive action the MoD has confirmed it is taking today," the broadcaster said tonight.

Mr Wood said: "We stand by the journalistic integrity of our reports which we believe are robust, well-sourced, and in the public interest. We find it alarming that the MoD has taken this step and is undermining the work of a news organisation which has a reputation for fair and balanced reporting of the operations of British troops deployed in conflict zones.

"We consider this to be a flagrant abuse of power and we call on the Secretary of State, Des Browne, to intervene immediately and restore fair treatment to ITV News."

The MoD’s anger at the ITV reports was made clear in an e-mail sent last Monday night by the Ministry's director of news, James Clark, which was forwarded to other press outlets.

"As bad a hatchet-job as I’ve seen in years. Cheap shots all over the place, no context, no reasonable explanation. Like the Daily Star in moving pictures," he wrote. "If giving ITN detailed exposure to our people, lengthy briefing and open access results in this, then I dread to think how your editors and producers would look to exploit access to our people in theatres (of war), or our chiefs and ministers."

A spokeswoman at the MoD declined to comment on the ban, saying she was not party to the negotiations.

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