MAY 12, 2004
Posted: November 4, 2004
Richard Carleton, Channel 9 television (Australia)
Howard Sacre, Channel 9
Paul Boocock, Channel 9
Ben Crane, Channel 9
Dietland Lerner, Channel 9
HARASSED, EXPELLED
Producer Sacre, associate producer Lerner, reporter Carleton, cameraman Boocock, and sound technician Crane arrived in the capital, Malabo, on May 9 with 10-day visas issued in Paris. Carleton told CPJ they had gone to report on the booming oil industry, the allocation of state oil revenue, and how the president was benefiting from it.
On the evening of May 12, a government minister came to a café where crew members were eating and told them "if you get on the plane leaving tonight for Madrid, nobody will be thrown in jail," according to Carleton. He told CPJ that he and his colleagues were at the airport an hour later, where three men, including the director of national security and the president's brother, supervised a search of their luggage. Authorities confiscated computer memory cards, Carleton said.