Academy Award winning producer Eva Orner says her new documentary about the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers does not break whistle-blower laws.
Orner's documentary Chasing Asylum is not due for release until May.
However on Tuesday, Network Ten's The Project previewed excerpts from the documentary which included the claim that it was a year before a detained child received their first soft toy.
The LA-based Aussie said during the interview that she did not believe anyone had contravened the Australian government's sweeping whistle-blower laws for workers in detention centres.
The Border Force Act includes whistle-blowers face the possibility of two years in jail for leaking details about offshore detention facilities.
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"As far as I am aware we haven't done anything illegal. No one has acted illegally," Orner said.
"What kind of indictment to Australian democracy is the fact that people can go to jail for two years for speaking out about a policy that allows children to be sexually abused?
"What we are doing is not OK and the fact that government is so scared and paranoid that they are legislating against it, is what we should be focusing on."
Orner won an Oscar in 2008 as producer of Taxi To The Dark Side, about the treatment of US prisoners of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo.
She said in some two decades in the industry, this was the toughest emotionally to make.
"In a 20-year career this has been by far the hardest film I have ever made," she said.
"It's incredibly upsetting. I have seen suffering on such a large scale."
