Reporters Without Borders slams E3 deportations

International press freedom lobby group Reporters Without Borders has protested against the detention and deportation of European journalists covering the E3 trade show in Los Angeles last week.

In a statement issued this week, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Menard comments that "these journalists were treated like criminals - subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted."

Although the official statement from the lobby group, and a complaint issued to the US ambassador to France, is concerned with six French journalists who were deported, four UK journalists were also affected, from three different publishing companies - bringing the total to ten, that we know about.

The reason given for this treatment of the journalists, who were detained for 26 hours prior to being deported, is that they did not have press visas - which are apparently required for any member of the foreign information media visiting the United States.

"As things stand, the decisions taken by airport security officials appear to have been arbitrary if not discriminatory," commented Menard, who is demanding that the USA clarify whether or not journalists traveling there must hold such a visa.

In the past, any journalists experiencing problems with press visas (a rare enough event in itself, although apparently a number of such cases arose at one of the E3 shows in Atlanta several years ago) have been fined; however, it would appear that under new anti-terror laws, journalists are to be deported for traveling without a visa.

"If any good can come from this experience, it is that I can tell other people what happened, so no-one has to be subjected to the same kind of treatment we did," commented Alison Wood from Indie Magazine, one of the journalists subjected to the ordeal in LA. "I also hope that E3 organisers, the Interactive Digital Software Association, take steps to ensure that in future they inform all international journalists what documentation is actually required to enter America as a journalist. It seems all this could've so easily been avoided if it had been made clear that entering the States, on the visa waiver program, as a journalist, is not permitted."