Australia trying to find TV crew detained in Lebanon

SYDNEY: An Australian television crew has been detained in Lebanon, their network said Thursday, with Canberra urgently trying to confirm the reporters’ whereabouts.

The group were reportedly filming a private operation by a child recovery agency involving two young children from Australia who were in Lebanon with their father.

“We are urgently seeking to confirm the crew’s whereabouts and welfare, and have offered all appropriate consular assistance,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement.

The Nine Network added that the crew, working for the current affairs show “60 Minutes”, had been detained in Beirut.

“We won’t be giving out any more details, other than to say we are working with authorities to get them released and back home ASAP,” it said.

Local media named those held as reporter Tara Brown, producer Steven Rice and one or two camera operators.

The Brisbane mother of the children reportedly involved in the filming has said their Lebanese father took them for a holiday and then allegedly refused to return them to Australia, Fairfax Media reported.

It is the second time an Australian television crew has been detained overseas in recent weeks after two Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalists were held in Malaysia for trying to question Prime Minister Najib Razak about multiple scandals swirling around him.

They were soon released and deported.

– AFP

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