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This International Dateline episode includes three segments: Sledgehammer Politics, Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly Interview, and Fiji Desecration.

Sledgehammer Politics

Control of information has become an integral part of the response of Western Governments to the so-called war on terror. They've all introduced laws that not only restrict long-cherished civil liberties but also impose sanctions against reporting issues deemed to threaten national security. The Australian Security Intelligence Organization Act brandishes a 5-year jail term and doesn't even need to be formally invoked to be effective. Does this mean that the mere threat of a jail term could be enough to suppress debate on national security issues even when the issue appears to have more to do with Government embarrassment than any real threat to the nation? Dateline's Thom Cookes reports on one particular disturbing case.

Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly Interview 
The role of the Sydney-based Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly in securing the safe release of hostage Douglas Wood is unclear. Opinion on the part the Sheik played ranges from crucial to irrelevant. Douglas Wood himself says he has never heard of him.  Nevertheless, the Australian Federal Government has praised what they called his tremendous efforts. Nick Warner, the Head of Australia's Emergency Response team in Baghdad says the 64-year-old Sheik displayed "extraordinary courage" walking the streets of the dangerous Red Zone in the violence-ridden Iraqi capital for two weeks trying to contact Douglas Wood's captors. So what is the Sheik's version of events? What role does he claim to have played? When he agreed to be interviewed at his home in Sydney, the Dateline crew and George Negus had no idea of the "post-Douglas Wood release" drama that would unfold before the cameras.  

Fiji Desecration

In 2000, when that Speight-led coup ousted the then-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, the island nation was divided along racial and religious lines. Most Indo-Fijians are Muslim or Hindu while their Polynesian compatriots are Christians. Since the coup, attacks against Fiji's many places of worship have become almost commonplace, most of them against Hindu temples, but also mosques and churches as well. With national elections set to take place next year, the desecration rate is increasing, amid concern that unscrupulous Fijian politicians might be tempted to stir up religious animosity to achieve their political ambitions. Dateline's Chris Hammer reports. 

About International Dateline 

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.