Pacific / Nauru

Nauru denies news organisation access

15:01 pm on 12 October 2015

The news organisation Al Jazeera has been told that all media visa applications have been denied by the Nauru government.

Al Jazeera had indicated it was prepared to pay the non-refundable 5,000 US dollar application fee in order to report on the detention centre and asylum seekers on Nauru.

After months of trying, Al Jazeera got in contact with Nauruan officials, however before being able to send documentation the news organisation was told the application would not be approved.

When asked for clarification, Al Jazeera was told no media application would be approved.

Al Jazeera's Asia Pacific correspondent Andrew Thomas says the organisation will not give up trying get to Nauru.

"We're hoping, having gone public, that it will knock some sense into some people in Nauru that this is not a good look and that if they have nothing to hide then they should be letting journalists in. We're just hoping that the attention of the formal refusal of all media visas is getting will make them realise that this is not a way a democratic country behaves."

Photo: RNZ