Journalists seek colleagues’ release

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 8

Journalists seek colleagues’ release

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires

Two. London-based journalists arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday to intervene on behalf of three colleagues jailed on charges of spying for the British Government. On a rescue mission are Hugh O’Shaughnessy, of the “Observer,” and Cal McCrystal, deputy editor of the “Sunday Times.” The arrested journalists are lan Mather and a photographer, Tony Prime, of the “Observer,” and Simon Winchester, of the “Sunday Times.”

They were taken into custody on Thursday on charges of taking photographs of the Rio Grande air and naval base in Argentina’s southernmost tip. Suspicions were aroused becaue their passports did not show they were journalists, military sources said.

They are scheduled to appear for a hearing before a judge today. If tried and convicted they face sentences of 11 to 30 years in prison. The three are being held in

a cramped 3 square metre cell in the provincial capital of Ushuaia, near where they were arrested.

Winchester was expelled from the Falklands when he was caught there during the invasion.

Rear-Admiral Horacio Zaratieque, commander of Argentina’s southern region, was quoted yesterday as saying Winchester’s notebook contained detailed references to the Argentine Air Force’s Mirage and Israeli-built Dagger jet fighters. ■

The admiral said that one of the three had been observing aircraft movements through binoculars while another made notes.'

The Swiss Embassy in Buenos Aires, which is looking after British affairs, asked the Foreign Ministry about the three Britons and the reply, confirming their detention, said today’s court appearance would be to decide how the matter should be handled.

Three Canadian journalists, working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora-

tion, are under house arest in the strategic oil town of Comodoro Rivadavia, in the south of Argentina, after being arrested on charges of filming in a “restricted area” at the airport, which TS' used as a staging post for troops and military- supplies destined for the Falkland Islands.

It has not yet been decided whether they are to be formally charged with espionage. More than 100 members of the international press corps in Buenos Aires signed a petition to the Foreign Ministry expressing “deep concern” about the arrest of their colleagues, British and Canadian.

It said: “Without exception they are legitimate members of the international press corps and their arrest as ‘spies’ is unacceptable. We are unalterably opposed to the kind of treatment which you would regard as an outrage if Argentinian journalists were treated in the same fashion in the countries we represent.”