DFAT AND DE FACTS

I withheld a story from you this week. I censored myself. Just before I went on air on 3AW on Tuesday I planned to say:

‘I want to talk to you about Nigel Brennan. He’s an Australian trapped in an overseas nightmare. You’ve probably never heard of him. He’s not an attractive young mum with four photogenic kids back here in Melbourne. He didn’t steal a bar mat in a tourist pub in Thailand while on a drunken escapade.

And he didn’t have a radio station run a saturation, emotion-charged, campaign to secure his release.’

I didn’t say that, not because of any pressure from 3AW, but because of a request from the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, that publicity could trigger his murder.

So I tagged the story ‘held over at DFAT and family request’ and kept my mouth shut. Other media, for their own reasons, decided not to hold back  and The Australian yesterday ran a five-column story and photos under the headline: Friends, family, plead for kidnapped Aussie.

And it detailed the plight of 37-year-old freelance photographer Nigel Brennan from Bundaberg and his colleague 27-year-old Canadian journalist  Amanda Lindhout who were kidnapped by bandits in war-torn Somalia nine months ago and have been prisoners ever since. They are being held for ransom.

They are currently in the news because of a telephone interview given to an Agence France-Presse correspondent in Mogadishu.  Brennan says he has lived in shackles for the past four months. He is quoted as saying: ‘My health is extremely poor and deteriorating rapidly due to extreme fever. I implore that my government help me as a citizen of Australia.’ The next bit is inaudible but he finishes with ‘…I ask for the help of my family in every way possible so that the ransom can be paid for my release.’

The Australian had no direct comment from Brennan’s family. Foreign Affairs has repeatedly advised them over the months not to go public.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith said again this week:

‘I do not think that media reporting in Australia or internationally helps Mr Brennan or his family. I remind all Australian media outlets of the materials that I have provided them with - and the urgings I have made to them - to bear that view uppermost in their minds when they come to their reporting of this matter.’

One of the problems the media faces is when to trust DFAT. I know they urged Britt Lapthorne’s father not to come on this program when he was desperate to find his missing daughter.

And the father of Aussie David Wilson, who was kidnapped and then executed two months later in Cambodia, says he hopes DFAT is being honest with the Brennan family.

‘It took me a while during the two months that David was held to realise DFAT was withholding information from me or misleading me’.

I hope going public now is the right thing.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009