Newspapers feud over payments to nurses

The Sun and the Daily Mail lead attacks over the payments to the nurses...

British tabloid newspapers have traded insults in a row over the freed Saudi nurses.

The Mirror and the Daily Express paid six figure sums to Lucille McLauchlan and Deborah Parry respectively for their stories of life behind bars.

Rival newspapers have attacked the payments as allowing criminals to profit from their crimes.

...And The Mirror responds in a similar tone

Those accusations, in turn, have prompted angry counter-attacks from The Mirror and the Daily Express who say other newspapers are being hypocritical because they lost in the bidding to buy the stories.

The dispute comes just weeks after the newspapers attacked each other over The Times' decision to serialise a book about the child killer Mary Bell.

Media scrum at airport

Journalists surround the nurses' car at Gatwick Airport

The row first spilled over into public view when the two nurses arrived at London's Gatwick airport.

Already subject to agreements negotiated by lawyers, the pair were surrounded as journalists jostled and came close to blows in the effort to get pictures of the women.

Newsdesks had already picked up the baton and launched attacks on each other.

With a page one headline "Freed nurses make a killing", The Sun quoted Frank Gilford, the brother of murdered nurse Yvonne, as saying the pair "must not profit" from the crime.

The Daily Mail added to the criticisms, saying the nurses faced a "storm of controversy" .

It warned British people should not fall into "fits of sentimental xenophobia as two convicted British criminals return home to tell and sell their stories".

Press Complaints Commission

The robust line taken by newspapers which allegedly lost out in the bidding war, was further added to when MP George Galloway made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the industry's body of self-regulation.

The PCC code of conduct, voluntarily observed by newspapers, states payments should not be made to criminals "except where the material concerned ought to be published in the public interest".

The Mirror and the Daily Express are using this public interest defence to attack rivals.

With a headline claiming "£175,000 HYPOCRISY AND THE DAILY MAIL", The Mirror published excerpts of the Daily Mail's alleged offer to Lucille McLauchlan.

Its editorial comment accused the rival of being "hyprocrite in chief", adding that its editorial line that the women are guilty would have left the publication in breach of the PCC code.

Boycott: Took advice from PCC

The Express' editor, Rosie Boycott, also mounted a strong defence of her newspaper's decision to pay Deborah Parry more than £100,000.

She said there had been an "immense miscarriage of justice" and the newspaper took advice from the PCC before agreeing to the deal.

"(Deborah Parry) really was a victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ms Boycott said.

"We did it because we very strongly believe that this women has had her life destroyed. I think that is a story worth telling."

Saudi backlash fears

The reaction of the British press has provoked the Saudi ambassador in London to criticise both the BBC's Panorama special on the case and the coverage in the tabloids.

Dr Ghazi Algosaibi described the Panorama investigation of the case as a "Hollywood" production and accused other journalists of sensationalism.

Labour MP Alan Keen, member of a parliamentary committee which watches the press, said he feared that the selling of the stories may jeopardise the fate of other UK citizens.

"I think it could create danger for other people in the future," said Mr Keen.

"(The nurses) have been fortunate enough to be allowed to come home.

"They really should have stayed home and rejoiced in their freedom and thought about other people who may be in the same position as them in the future," Mr Keen said.