Seized sailors and marines granted permission to sell their stories

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070408/eu-gen-britain-iran-media

Seized sailors and marines granted permission to sell their stories

JENNIFER QUINN | AP | April 8, 2007 09:12 AM EST

LONDON — The 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran for nearly two weeks have been granted permission to sell their stories to the media, the Ministry of Defense said Sunday.

The move is a change from the military's usual policy of blocking serving service personnel from entering into financial arrangements with media organizations. A defense ministry spokeswoman said the situation of the former captives is unique and deserved special consideration.

"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," the defense ministry said in a statement.

"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."

The ministry had earlier said only that the decision had been made because of "exceptional circumstances."

The Sunday Times reported that the only woman in the group, 26-year-old Leading Seaman Faye Turney, could earn as much as 150,000 pounds (US$300,000; euro220,000) from deals with a broadcaster and a newspaper.

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