1 NEWS Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has spoken about her experience in Nauru today, where she was temporarily detained by authorities while covering the Pacific Islands Forum.
Dreaver was conducting an interview with a refugee when detained by police around 1pm today.
During a live cross she told 1 NEWS about the experience.
"I was interviewing a refugee outside a restaurant, we had been told we could do this by Nauraun officials.
"However, a police car then turned up with three officers who said I breached my visa and I had to go with them to the police station, where I was questioned for three hours," Dreaver said.
While her visa remains, Dreaver has been stripped of her media accreditation for the forum.
"I cannot use the media centre or go to any press conferences. I can do forum stories but am not allowed to report on anything to do with refugees," she said.
Dreaver says she was treated "extremely well" by the Nauru police and is doing just "fine and dandy" after the incident.
The police confiscated the footage that was taken during her brief interview with a male refugee.
She will leave the country tomorrow evening with other media on the same plane as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT
The increasingly authoritarian Government in Nauru has targeted opposition MPs, the judiciary and freedom of speech.
Nauru is home to an Australian detention centre with more than 900 refugees and asylum seekers on the island – about 100 of them children.
Media outlets covering the forum were limited to three journalists each, and there were restrictions on their coverage.
Dreaver was interviewing a refugee in a café when authorities took exception.
Australia's ABC was told not to bother applying for a visa as the Nauru administration felt its coverage was biased.
Other media groups were denied visas, as were some non-government organisations which have been outspoken about the refugees on Nauru.
The Nauru government released a statement this evening, denying she was detained, but saying Dreaver 'voluntarily' accompanied them while they made inquiries.
They accused her of failing to following "procedures" for reporting outside the forum.
Dreaver has faced issues covering Pacific Islands stories in the past. She was banned from Fiji for eight years over a 2008 story that highlighted poverty in a Fijian village.
The 1 NEWS reporter spent time in a Fijian detention centre before being allowed to return home.
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