WOOMERA (Australia), Jan 28: Australian authorities have been accused of muzzling the press after journalists were ordered out of sight of a detention centre where asylum seekers are on a hunger strike.

The directive to move to an area one kilometre from the Woomera Detention Centre was given after dark Saturday by Australian Protective Services officers.

It followed the reporting of violent disturbances at the centre in the South Australian desert where up to 370 asylum seekers are refusing food in protest at the conditions they are being held in and delays in processing their claims.

About 30 members of the press have been camped outside the Outback compound for the past week.

A reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was arrested and charged with failing to leave commonwealth property.

The centre and Woomera township are on commonwealth land and administered by the Department of Defence. No access has been given to the hunger strikers.

The union representing journalists in Australia, the Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA), said it was appalled.

“In the eyes of the international community we’re looking more like a military dictatorship than a free democracy,” South Australian branch secretary Dana Wortley told the ABC.

MEAA federal secretary Chris Warren added: “It’s frankly unbelievable that in this century the government would be resorting (to) these sorts of laws to prevent public reporting and debate on such an important issue.

Democrat party immigration spokesman Andrew Bartlett said the government had previously been eager to highlight the damage done during rioting by detainees at the centre last year.

“It is symptomatic of the whole approach that the government has taken of trying to cover up or control the flow of information,” he said. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock told ABC Monday the media curbs were needed to protect detainees.—AFP