Australia may be one of the US' staunchest allies, but that doesn't mean its journalists can get into the country without correct working visas.
The latest high-profile victim of tight visa scrutiny at US airports is Ian "Molly" Meldrum, one of Australia's best-known television personalities, who arrived in Los Angeles to conduct an interview with Latin pop star Enrique Iglesias.
Because Meldrum, famous for wearing a cowboy hat on his long-running music show Countdown, did not have a journalist's working visa, he was detained by immigration authorities and sent home.
Meldrum is the latest high-profile Australian to be barred from entering the US for failing to have the correct visa. Last year the editor of a popular woman's magazine fell foul of the same rule.
"The US is a lot more sensitive nowadays about entry into their country than what they have been before because of the events of Sept. 11, 2001," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday in Los Angeles where he was attending a show promoting Australia. "People must make sure they have the correct documentation before they set off because we are getting several people every week turned away from the US with incorrect documentation."
Australian tourists entering the US do not have to have a visa, just a valid passport, but a journalist planning to work in the country must have a special visa.
Downer said he unsuccessfully appealed to US authorities to let Meldrum in.
"We did our best to try to persuade the American authorities nevertheless to make an exemption for him," Downer said. "He's a well known Australian, he's a well-regarded Australian and is not a threat to anybody here in the United States so we did what we could to try to encourage the Americans to accept Molly Meldrum, but they nevertheless decided to turn him around and we regret that."
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