Immigration Department official tries to block Fairfax photographing Lt General Angus Campbell as he visits the squalid Manus Island Police station prison where six asylum seekers were locked up for 48 hours.
Immigration Department official tries to block
Fairfax photographing Lt General Angus Campbell as he visits the squalid
Manus Island Police station prison where six asylum seekers were locked
up for 48 hours. Photo: Rory Callinan
I've seen some censorship in my 20-plus years as a journalist
reporting from Australia and various countries in the Asia Pacific
region.
But what I saw on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea has made
me uneasy about press freedom in the Pacific and the Australian
Government's approach to reporting on the detention centre.
Last week photographer Nick Moir and I were on the island to
report on the aftermath of the riot at the detention centre, which left
one asylum seeker dead and about 70 injured.





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Injured asylum seekers on Manus Island. Photo: Nick Moir

Within hours of arriving, staff from G4S, the private
security company employed by the Australian Government to manage the
centre, had manhandled Nick, confiscated his camera and forced him to
delete photographs in order to censor news.