Nauru's Home Affairs Minister has defended moves by the government to raise a visa fee for visiting journalists.
Last month Nauru hiked the journalist visa application fee from 200 dollars Australian to 8000 dollars.
The Minister, Charmaine Scotty admits the move is a response to the significant damage that foreign media personnel inflict on Nauru through their negative coverage of the island's role as a venue processing asylum seekers on Australia's behalf.
The minister says journalists seem to have made up their minds in advance of arriving to vilify Nauru.
"With all the bad press that they come and do, we have extra hard problems in regards to the local community and the visitors that are called transferees. We have community programmes for them, community outreach programmes which are being severely held back because through the really bad press, the people in Nauru are getting really afraid of these people."
Nauru's Home Affairs Minister, Charmaine Scotty.