60 Minutes: Tara Brown handcuffed, defenceless as tension builds

Tara Brown, handcuffed, defenceless, is the graphic image of a sorry 60 Minutes saga that still has some way to play out.

A Lebanese plainclothes policeman prevents Australian TV presenter Tara Brown from looking towards journalist. Picture: AP

As Tara Brown is manhandled, head pushed down so she can’t turn towards photographers rushing down a Beirut street, the captured image is everything Channel Nine has been trying to prevent.

The network has been attempting to control the public relations of the kidnap case all week, including some unsavoury verbal scenes inside the court yesterday between a Nine crisis management expert and several Lebanese journalists.

The crisis management expert was incensed that Newscorp had published a picture purporting to be the cell door behind which was Ms Brown, saying that her children could have seen the photo and become upset.

60 Minutes ‘kidnapping saga’

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They also wrongly blamed one Lebanese journalist, accusing her of taking a photo — which is banned on court premises — and of writing a story they disagreed with and then in another outburst to a second Lebanese journalist, demanded nearby security officials clear the first floor hall of all media. Only the intervention of one of the lawyers involved in the case, Adam Whittington’s legal counsel Joe Haram, who reminded staff that prosecuting judge Rami Abdullah had insisted that media be allowed, prevented a court blackout.

A Lebanese policeman escorts Tara Brown. Picture: AP

The Lebanese journalists, who didn’t hold back in their verbose responses, said the crisis management expert was disrespecting their professionalism and status within the court and the Nine representative eventually agreed that they had made a mistake. Clearly the tension that has built since the April 6 and 7 arrests of the 60 Minutes crew, their ‘talent’ Sally Faulkner and the abduction recovery crew, has reached stratospheric levels.

But the subterfuge surrounding Ms Brown continued throughout the day.

Court officials told journalists that Ms Brown and Sally Faulkner would not be attending the court that day when the prosecuting judge was gathering evidence related to another high profile but unrelated internet case.

The lights went out near the court finish time of 2pm and Ms Faulkner’s lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab came out to tell the media pack the investigation was adjourned until Wednesday. Then, security officials quickly moved in and demanded everyone leave, pushing the pack up and down the stairs. Immediately, Ms Brown and Ms Faulkner, both manacled, were taken down the corridor to the prosecutors room, where they entered for just a minute before exiting the opposite way.

A Lebanese plainclothes policeman prevents Australian TV presenter Tara Brown from looking towards journalist. Picture: AP

Photographers and camera crews who had gathered at the three main points of the court including where tens of handcuffed prisoners had entered earlier, were caught flat-footed when the Lebanese internal security force walked Ms Brown and Ms Faulkner out the only media free zone: the front door. Then when the photographers chased down the street, the officers pushed MS Brown’s head down to stop her turning to the cameras.

It’s one of the few shots of Ms Brown, blonde hair askew and so it flashed between Lebanon and Australia in super quick time. Ms Brown, handcuffed and defenceless, is the graphic image of the whole sorry kidnap saga that still has some way to play out.