Tablet computers for asylum seekers on Manus Island have had their camera functions removed days after Fairfax Media published photographs of life in the island's camp.
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The photographs, which were sent from the camp to the mainland without the knowledge of the Department of Immigration, showed conditions there are very basic.
Despite the prevalence of malaria on the island, they appeared to show little protection offered for children from disease-carrying mosquitoes, with flywire hanging loose over doorways.
There were no doors on the dongas pictured to offer privacy and protection from mosquitoes, and no air-conditioning to offer respite from the island's intense heat.
The Department of Immigration says conditions are comparable to those in which Papua New Guinea locals live.
The department has previously released stock photographs of the island's processing camp, but since asylum seekers began to arrive on the island in November, the media have been unable to access the camp to verify conditions.
On Sunday, an asylum seeker on Manus reported that the tablet computers provided for asylum seekers' use had been collected by camp staff and returned with the camera functions disabled.
The department's communications manager Sandi Logan suggested on Twitter that the controversy was a ''beat-up''. Besides, he said, cameras were banned in all detention centres.
''If disabling's occurred, it's our duty of care around client privacy.''
A spokesman for the department said: ''Cameras and recording devices have never been allowed in detention facilities, ever, and we have a duty of care around the privacy of all people in our care and we must ensure we protect the operational integrity of all of our facilities.''
Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said: ''These people have come from Iran where they are censored to Australia where they are experiencing the same censorship.''
