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Journalist covering Oprah in Haiti detained

Published:Tuesday | December 13, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Oprah Winfrey, left, stands with actor Sean Penn in a camp for people displaced by the devastating 2010 earthquake in what was once a golf club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, December 12. Winfrey is visiting the settlement camp run by Penn and his aid group J/P HRO. - AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP):

Police detained a Haitian journalist who tried to take photos of Oprah Winfrey as she visited an encampment of citizens displaced by the 2010 earthquake.

An Associated Press journalist yesterday saw a guard drag a Haitian photographer into a small police station at the camp.

Police refused to let the photographer leave unless he erased his camera memory card. A senior police inspector arrived about 90 minutes later and ordered the photographer released. Winfrey spokesman Chance Patterson later said the guard didn't realise the man detained yesterday was a journalist.

Police and private security guards are out in force as Winfrey meets with Sean Penn at the camp where his non-profit organisation provides assistance to quake victims.