AFP/Wellington
The Pacific nation of Nauru is trying to impose a media blackout on alleged human rights abuses in Australian-run migrant centres on the island nation, campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said yesterday.
The group alleged that the Nauru government had told Qatari-based broadcaster Al Jazeera that all international media requests to visit the island were being refused.
“The island’s authorities have not only turned a blind eye to allegations of rape and other abuses in the detention centre... they have also decided to block all media coverage of the alleged abuses,” it said.
RSF also accused Canberra of failing to ensure there was proper scrutiny of the 600-plus asylum seekers in the Nauru detention centre that it bankrolls.
“It is unacceptable that Australia, after moving asylum processing offshore at great expense, should also delegate censorship and discriminatory decisions against the media,” it said.
Australia is currently lobbying for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.
Asylum seekers attempting to enter Australia by boat are turned back or sent to detention camps on Nauru or Papua New Guinea under Canberra’s tough immigration policy.
They are blocked from resettling on the mainland even if found to be refugees.
Nauru ramped up visa fees for visiting media from Aus$200 ($145) to Aud$8,000 ($5,800) last year in a move RSF said was aimed at discouraging journalistic scrutiny.
Australia has said its hardline immigration policy is necessary to stop asylum seekers from dying at sea, and denied the hike in fees for journalist visas was to shut down public information about its Nauru camp.
Authorities on the remote island have also raided the offices of the charity Save the Children twice this month, reportedly seeking the source of leaks to Australian media about asylum seekers.
International monitors have criticised the nation of 10,000 after it introduced laws carrying heavy jail terms for political protesters and curbed access to Internet sites such as Facebook.
Both the UN and US State Department have called for Nauru to restore freedoms, saying they are essential for healthy democracy.
An opposition MP, Roland Kun, had his passport seized after allegedly taking part in a protest outside Nauru’s parliament and has been unable to travel to see his family in New Zealand.
