Military personnel have been banned from selling their stories to the media, the defence secretary, Des Browne, announced tonight, amid a growing row over the returned captives from Iran.
He said the Royal Navy had faced a "very tough call" over its decision to allow the sailors among the 15 hostages to take payments in return for their accounts - the first of which were published today.
But he said everyone concerned recognised it had "not reached a satisfactory outcome" and lessons must be learned from a review of procedures ordered by the Ministry of Defence.
"I want to be sure those charged with these difficult decisions have clear guidance for the future," he said in his first comment on the controversy.
"Until that time, no further service personnel will be allowed to talk to the media about their experiences in return for payment."
An account by Leading Seaman Faye Turney of her captivity appeared in today's Sun newspaper as part of a joint deal with ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald thought to be worth almost £100,000. Meanwhile, the youngest captive, Arthur Batchelor, 20, sold his story to the Mirror.
The Ministry of Defence had waived normal rules to allow the sailors to be paid for speaking to the media because of the "exceptional circumstances" of their capture.
However, the move has brought criticism from families of other personnel killed in conflict zones, and warnings from opposition politicians and former senior military personnel that it will set a dangerous precedent.
Speaking this afternoon before Mr Browne's announcement, the second sea lord, Vice-Admiral Adrian Johns, had revealed the MoD was reviewing the policy surrounding media payments. The vice-admiral conceded that present rules were outdated but strongly defended the decision - which he said Mr Browne had been aware of.
Asked who made the decision, the vice-admiral said: "The decision was taken by the Royal Navy and then referred up the chain to the Ministry of Defence.
"Ministers knew about it and the secretary of state [Mr Browne] knew about it as well. It was a Royal Navy decision to get the story out."
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World At One, the vice-admiral said that the Royal Navy felt that the personnel should be able to "tell the story in their own words and through the media".
This morning, Lord Heseltine, a former Tory defence secretary, added his voice to the criticism of the media deals, saying he was shocked and "appalled" the government had permitted them.
Lord Heseltine told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it was not right for personnel who were taken hostage that they could make so much money.
He said: "What an extraordinary story that people who every day take calculated risks with their lives are expected to earn relatively small sums of money while people who get themselves taken hostage, in circumstances which are worth exploring, can make a killing."
However, Royal Navy Lieutenant Felix Carman, one of the 15 captives, said that he would not criticise his fellow detainees who had sold their stories. He told GMTV that neither he nor Royal Marine Captain Chris Air had accepted money for their stories because they wanted "to tell their side of it".
Lt Carman said: "I personally find the subject (of being paid to speak about the ordeal) a bit unsavoury, but I don't begrudge people who have been through an awful ordeal making a bit of money out of this. In the case of Faye Turney, she has a young daughter and the money could set her up for life."
There has been particular interest in the story of Ms Turner, the sole female detainee. She revealed in her interview with the Sun that she feared at one stage that her captors had measured her for a coffin.
Ms Turney, a mother of one, said a woman had come into her cell and measured her from head to toe, while she could hear the sound of wood sawing and nails being hammered. Ms Turney said: "She shouted the measurements to a man outside. I was convinced they were making my coffin."
The 25-year-old said the worst thing that happened to her was that she was kept alone and told her colleagues had been released. She said: "With a blindfold on, I was led away from the rest of the guys. All I could hear from behind me was one of them shout, 'they're going to execute us'."
Ms Turney - who was released with her colleagues last week after almost a fortnight in captivity - said she was threatened with years in prison if she did not cooperate with her Iranian captors.
The Iranians had told her she would be free in weeks if she confessed to being in Iranian waters, she said, and she was given just an hour to think what to do.
In the interview to be broadcast on ITV1 tonight, Ms Turney told how she "felt like a traitor" when she was ordered to write the "confession" letters.
It is thought that some of the money she has been paid will go to a charity linked to HMS Cornwall, the frigate which the patrol crew were operating from when their two small craft were intercepted in the Gulf by Iranian forces on March 23.
Operator Mechanic Batchelor told the Mirror that his Iranian guards had nicknamed him Mr Bean and that they had all feared they would be sexually abused. He told the Daily Mirror that Ms Turney had risked beatings from guards for whispering reassurances to him after they were snatched.
He said: "It was beyond terrifying. They seemed to take particular pleasure in mocking me for being young. A guard kept flicking my neck with his index finger and thumb. I thought the worst ... I was frozen in terror and just stared into the darkness of my blindfold."