A New Zealand journalist has been temporarily detained by authorities in Nauru while covering the Pacific Islands Forum.
Television New Zealand says its Pacific correspondent, Barbara Dreaver, was held in a police station on Tuesday afternoon after interviewing a refugee at a cafe.
She has since been released with no charges filed, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told reporters later in the day.
The state broadcaster reports New Zealand officials believe Dreaver may have been accused of breaching the conditions of her visa, had been stripped of her accreditation for the forum and that Nauru's authorities were considering deporting her on Wednesday night.
The Nauru government has issued a statement denying the journalist was detained, saying "she voluntarily accompanied them while they made further enquiries".
"No journalist on Nauru has been prevented from talking to any person, including refugees," the government-issued statement read.
"However in order to protect the safety and security of all, journalists were required to follow procedures, which included going through the proper channels in order to visit or go close to the refugee residential settlements, and conduct stories outside of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)."
In a statement, TVNZ Head of News John Gillespie said Ms Dreaver was understood to be in good spirits and "has no complaints in how she has been handled".
"Barb's safety is our paramount concern," he said.
"She's been stopped from doing her job which raises major concerns about media freedom."
Amnesty International condemned the detention, saying Nauruan authorities had been maintaining a " wall of secrecy" around asylum seekers.
Nauru's government has given only limited media access to the forum, waiving its prohibitively large media visas fee, but only allowing small numbers of journalists to attend.
The visa conditions issued to journalists specified they were "solely intended for the purpose of covering the 49th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and related events and meetings".
The government's banning of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the event prompted a boycott by media organisations in the Canberra parliamentary press gallery earlier this year.
Dreaver was also banned from Fiji for eight years over a story about poverty in a village in 2008.
