A virtual media blackout at the remote republic of Nauru is set to be temporarily broken, after tabloid television program A Current Affair announced it had gained exclusive access to the island's offshore detention centre.
In a statement on Friday, the Channel Nine program spruiked an episode to run on Monday night from "inside Nauru's detention centre", claiming the story would "stun Australia".
"We'll take you inside the Australian-run regional processing centre ... it marks the very first time that a television crew has been granted access to the controversial facility," the statement said.
"Our cameras will bring you exclusive footage on how asylum seekers and refugees are really living".
Foreign journalists must pay an $8000 visa fee to visit Nauru, which is not refunded if the application is rejected.
Critics say the virtual ban on foreign media visiting the island is a blatant attempt by Australian and Nauruan authorities to prevent the emergence of damaging information about the plight of asylum seekers and refugees, who report frequent violence and discrimination, sex assaults and poor living conditions.
Prominent lawyer and asylum seeker advocate George Newhouse said ACA would likely have been shown a sanitised version of the island.
"I'm sure that ACA journalists will be doing their best on Nauru, but it's likely they will not have free access to all of the island and they may well be being taken to selected locations," he said.
"The centre was reopened in 2012 and it has taken four years to get it into a state where film crews can see selective parts of it - four miserable years."
He predicted the program would show new accommodation and hospital facilities, adding "they won't know the [new part of the] hospital is just a front right now and is barely operating".
Mr Newhouse claimed the program would not film mouldy tents where families slept or "bush tracks at night where refugee women are being abducted and raped".
"We don't know how they got permission to go to Nauru and what conditions were placed on them. What did ACA have to agree to in order to get their visas?" he said.
Channel Nine declined to comment.
On the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said a Labor government would allow journalists to visit Nauru and Manus Island detention centres, saying "this nation operates best if you treat people as smart and intelligent and tell them what's going on".
The government criticised the pledge, saying media access to the centres was determined by the Papua New Guinea and Nauru governments.
In October last year, Nauru police raided the offices of Save the Children workers who assist asylum seekers on the island, seizing computers and mobile phones.
It was understood the raid was connected to a Guardian Australia article involving an email to detention centre staff, which said Nauruan journalists would be allowed to enter the detention centre to "reinstate balance" in media reporting.
Later that month, The Australian journalist Chris Kenny became the first reporter allowed on to Nauru in 18 months.
Mr Kenny was accused of forcing his way into the room of Abyan, a Somali woman who claimed to have been raped and wanted an abortion, for an interview. Mr Kenny strongly denied the allegation.
Other media outlets, including Fairfax Media, say the Nauru government has rejected or ignored their inquiries about obtaining a journalist visa.
