Media

Last year, the Nauruan government said it was increasing the application fee for journalist visas from AUD 200 ($145) to a non-refundable AUD 8,000 (US$5,821) per person. 

But when Al Jazeera tried to apply, the networks was told “all media application [sic] is not approved”.

For some months, Al Jazeera has been emailing and phoning Nauru about the official process for a correspondent and cameraman to apply to visit the country. Most email messages and phone calls went unanswered.

The director-general of political and general administration at the Home Ministry, Soedarmo, said the new regulation was a follow-up policy drawn up after ministries and state institutions in charge of supervising foreigners in Indonesia, with the Foreign Ministry as the leading institution, agreed that it was important to monitor all activities of foreign journalists in Indonesia.