Chequebook journalism row reopens

Tony Martin is believed to been given as much as £100,000 for his story

The Mirror newspaper's "six-figure" deal for its exclusive series of interviews with Tony Martin has reopened the controversy over newspaper payments to convicted criminals.

The Press Complaints Commission - the newspaper industry's watchdog - is investigating the deal between the tabloid and the farmer, who was released from prison on Tuesday after serving two-thirds of a five-year sentence for manslaughter.

The PCC will examine whether the Mirror's chequebook journalism breached clause 17 of its code of practice, which bars payments to criminals.

The Mirror's editor, Piers Morgan, said his paper intended to use the "public interest" defence within the code, which states that payment is banned "except where the material concerned ought to be published in the public interest and payment is necessary for this to be done".

It is that defence - which allows convicted criminals to be paid if their story is of overriding importance - that has been at the centre of the controversy since the clause was included in the PCC code.

In the end, someone is making money out of committing a crime Chris Bryant MP

Chris Bryant, a Labour MP who has argued for closer scrutiny of the press, told the BBC the public interest defence might excuse Martin's story appearing in the press, but not the payment he received.

He said: "It is one thing to ask him to write an article for the paper, or even give him a weekly column - I wouldn't have a problem with that.

"But I do have a problem with what is basically buying the story of a crime.

"In the end, someone is making money out of committing a crime."

Press protest

The issue recently led to the Guardian newspaper threatening to walk away from the PCC.

The paper was infuriated by a PCC adjudication which censured it for paying £720 to John Williams, a prisoner at Hollesley Bay jail, for an article on fellow inmate Lord Archer.

The paper's editor, Alan Rusbridger - backed in a letter by the editors of four other national newspapers, argued that the PCC's ruling observed the letter, but not the spirit, of the code.

A book about child-killer Mary Bell sparked controversy

The code raises two emotive issues - freedom of speech for prisoners, and protection of the feelings of victims.

The Times drew strong criticism for serialising a book about the convicted child killer Mary Bell, who was living under court-protected anonymity following her release.

Some reports suggested Bell's 14-year-old daughter had only discovered her mother was a convicted killer because of the publicity that followed.

In that case the PCC took no action. It also accepted the public interest defence when the Express and the Mirror paid two British women convicted of killing Australian nurse Yvonne Fletcher in Saudi Arabia.

The government said on Tuesday it would look again at taking the matter of payments to prisoners out of the hands of the PCC and into legislation.

Home Office minister Caroline Flint told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are looking at how the criminal and civil law might be applied to prevent offenders profiting from their crimes by writing or selling stories about them."