Australian Associated Press
CANBERRA, May 8 AAP – A film producer working with two Australian journalists in north Africa says reports the pair were held against their will by separatist rebels are incorrect.
“They absolutely refute the stories that have appeared in the press about supposed kidnapping by the Polisario Front officials,” Mr Zubrycki said in a statement.
The Moroccan state news agency named the Australians as Daniel Fallshow and Violeta Ayala.
The pair are believed to have been in Morocco to film a documentary.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the journalists had been detained but had been released after “vigorous representations” by Australia’s embassy in Paris.
But the film’s producer Tom Zubrycki claims the pair were never detained against their will.
“They absolutely refute the stories that have appeared in the press about supposed kidnapping by the Polisario Front officials,” Mr Zubrycki said in a statement.
“They admit there were a few difficulties but that they have now been resolved.
“They say that at no stage were they ever detained.”
The journalists were believed to have been filming a documentary on slavery and racism in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps in south-western Algeria.
But Kamal Fadel, a spokesman for the Polisario Front in Australia, said the pair were instead making a film called the Wall of Shame.
“(It) is about family separation caused by the conflict in Western Sahara and due to Wall (berm) built by Morocco to separate the occupied areas from the liberated territories controlled by Polisario,” Mr Fadel said in a statement.
Mr Fadel also said Polisario Front was a legitimate independence movement and not a separatist organisation.
According to DFAT, the journalists left the area by commercial flight last Sunday.
News reports:
Aussie journos ‘not kidnapped’ – Adelaide Advertiser report
Domestic news – West Australian
Aussie journos ‘not kidnapped’ – Melbourne Herald Sun