Woomera news group protests
The Canberra Times
SYDNEY: A major newspaper group joined the journalists' union yesterday in protests against an order to move the media away from the Woomera detention centre, where asylum-seekers are on hunger strike.
Two Australian newspapers have sent Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock a letter demanding immediate media access to the centre and condemning threats to arrest journalists.
The action, by Fairfax's Sydney Morning Herald and the Age in Melbourne, follows a weekend decision by the Australian Protective Service to move reporters a further 200m away from the centre, in South Australia's north.
That decision, on Saturday night, preceded the arrest of ABC journalist Natalie Larkins for failing to leave Commonwealth land.
Dana Wortley, of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said yesterday the union was appalled by Ms Larkins's arrest.
"In the eyes of the international community we're looking more like a military dictatorship than a free democracy," Ms Wortley said.
Mr Ruddock and Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who is responsible for the protective service, denied any involvement in the decision which both said was made to protect lives.
"I did not have any say," Mr Ruddock told reporters in Sydney yesterday. "I was not asked for my approval; the decision was taken by the competent authority in accordance with the professional judgment they formed."
He said that before Saturday's decision, a detainee had stood on a fence and gestured to the media before throwing himself on to a razor-wire fence, cutting and entangling himself.
"There was a very clear risk to life," he said. "A gentleman who clearly stood on the fence . . . and then jumped head-first almost lost his life because of severe cuts to his neck that almost severed an artery."
When asked if lives were more important than freedom of the Press, Mr Ruddock replied, "I'd ask you - do you think peoples' lives should be sacrificed in order to ensure particular acts of that character could be reported?" Mr Ruddock said it was not for him to comment on whether there would be further media restrictions.
The letter from the two newspapers said such measures were interfering with the coverage of important news events.
"We wish to protest in the strongest terms the removal of journalists from the immediate vicinity of the Woomera detention centre, the arrest of one of our colleagues, and the threats to arrest journalists who are covering the news," the letter said. "We do not recognise or accept the legitimacy of the measures taken by the authorities in this instance, and they must not serve as a precedent for the future."
The letter - signed by the Herald's editor-in-chief Alan Revell and editor Robert Whitehead, and the Age's editor-in-chief Greg Hywood and editor Michael Gawenda - requested immediate access to the facility.
"Such on-site reporting is critical to a full understanding of what is occurring at Woomera and why, and is therefore indispensable to an informed public policy debate on this very important public policy issue," the letter read in part.