Namibia seal hunters 'clubbed journalists, seized footage'

Jul 17, 2009, 15:51 GMT

Johannesburg/Amsterdam - Club-wielding seal hunters in Namibia rained blows down on a British and South African journalist and seized their equipment in the moments before the journalists' arrest, the Dutch NGO for which they working said Friday.

Jim Wickens, a journalist with British investigative agency Ecostorm, and Bart Smithers, a South African cameraman, were shooting a documentary for Dutch lobby group, Bont voor Dieren ('Fur for Animals') when they set upon by hunters Thursday in Henties Bay.

Police then arrested them for filming in the Cape Cross Seal Nature Reserve without permission. After spending a night in police custody, they were released on bail on Friday, according to Bont voor Dieren director Claudia Linzen.

'They were beaten with clubs,' Linzen told the German Press Agency dpa, adding that the hunters pursued them even after the police arrived, attempting to strike at them in the police car.

Wickens, a seasoned journalist, had spoken to her by phone during the attack and told her he had 'never experienced such aggression', she said.

Contrary to some media reports, which said police had confiscated the journalists' equipment, Linzen alleged the equipment had been seized by the hunters and had not yet been recovered.

Asked about the incident, police spokesman Angula Amulungu said: 'As far as I know one of them got a slap from one of them (seal hunters)' but said he did not think the incident had been serious.

Amulungu said the journalists were arrested on charges of contravening the Marine and Fisheries Act because they did not have permission to film in the reserve.

Bont voor Dieren confirmed the pair had not sought permission to film the hunt.

'The organization had not requested permission to film as it was expected the Namibian government would not give such permission, because it supports seal hunting,' Claudia Linzen, the group's director told the German Press Agency dpa.

The seal hunt in Namibia, the only known country along with Canada to still conduct a seal cull, began on July 1.

Namibia's Ministry of Fisheries has issued a quota of 86,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls per year for three years starting in 2007 to contain a population of an estimated 650,000 seals.

Animal rights activists says the cull is inhumane and claim that it has led to a dramatic decrease in Namibia's seal population.

Linzen said the documentary aimed to shine a light on the practise in the Netherlands, where Namibia's eco-tourism, including seal watching, is attracting growing numbers of tourists.

The Namibia government says that seal populations need to be controlled to protect fish stocks.

The fur, skin, meat, fat and genitals of the seals are all harvested and sold.