BY PIP HINMAN
SYDNEY — The Australian Press Council on November 30 denounced the federal government's restrictions on media access to asylum seekers. Council chairperson Professor Ken McKinnon accused the government of "severely restricting the ability of the news media to report freely on a question that has become central to political debate in Australia".
McKinnon said that journalists are routinely denied access to refugees and that the immigration detention centres at Port Hedland, Woomera, Villawood and Maribyrnong impose the same restrictions as high security prisons. The same policy is also applied at the camps being constructed on Nauru and other Pacific islands.
In one case, the Australian Associated Press editor-in-chief Tony Vermeer tried to gain access to asylum seekers taken to Manus island, off PNG. "PNG officials told us they wanted to allow reporters to talk to the boat people ... but had been told not to do so by Australia", said Vermeer.
In another case, John Flint of the Perth Sunday Times said when he was on Christmas Island he was repeatedly denied access to asylum seekers inside and outside the sports hall. "On several occasions when I was attempting to communicate with asylum seekers, I was moved on by Australasian Correctional Management managers, even though I was standing in a public place and had not crossed the cordon into the camp.
"Journalists were often told that there was a media liaison officer for the immigration department somewhere on the island, but no journalist was able to locate the 'media officer' and it became a bit of a standing joke as to where that official was hiding."
According to McKinnon, the restrictions leave journalists reliant on official government sources of information. "The government argues that the ban on speaking to asylum seekers is for the protection of asylum seekers themselves: they may face reprisals if they return to their home countries or their families may be threatened", McKinnon said.
"This risk should not be ignored by journalists, but it is possible to report an interview without identifying the person or persons involved. And in any case, the asylum seekers themselves are surely the best judges of whether they or their families will be endangered if they speak out."
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
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