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Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes confirms story on Sydney Siege

60-minutesChannel Nine has signed an exclusive deal to interview many of the 10 hostages who survived the siege in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place in December last year.

A Nine spokeperson confirmed 60 Minutes intends to broadcast a story about the siege, however declined to comment further adding “details will be revealed in due course”. They also declined to comment on questions around how much the hostages have been paid.

The Guardian has reported Channel Seven has signed several survivors for its Sunday Night program and Bauer Media’s Australian Women’s Weekly has an exclusive interview and a photo spread with one of the female survivors. However, a spokesperson for Bauer Media has told Mumbrella the story was inaccurate and the Women’s Weekly does not have any siege coverage planned.

Channel Seven had not responded to questions for comment at time of publication.

The news of the deal follows on from the inquest into the deaths of Sydney siege victims Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson, as well as the gunman Man Haron Monis, is to open on January 29.

It is expected the interviews will air before the inquest is over, with speculation suggesting either channel could air their story before February 4, with The Guardian reporting 60 Minutes intends to air its special edition on Sunday February 4, the first night of official TV ratings for 2015.

It is unclear how much the siege survivors have been paid for the interviews, with the potentially of a sliding scale depending on their story.

A lawyer for Marchia Mikhael, a Westpac executive and a hostage forced to hold the black flag in the window of the cafe as well as in videos repeating the demands of the gunman, has told News Corp he did not want o be “insulted” by low offers for her story.

At the end of last year Fairfax Media apologised for live streaming the funeral of Dawson despite a family request to broadcasters and publishers not to do so.

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