Dili – Indonesian authorities on Tuesday deported four Australian journalists from East Timor, accusing them of inciting violence during the territory's autonomy ballot, a military official said.

The high-ranking official told AFP the four members of a TV crew were arrested at a polling station in Maumete, Liquisa district, scene of a brutal massacre of refugees by pro-Indonesian militiamen in April.

They were asking voters how they had cast their ballots in Monday's historic self-determination vote, he said. "It's true that there are four Australians going to be sent away from here," the official said requesting anonymity.

Police arrested the four, travelling on tourist visas, after they had upset voters in the polling station by interviewing them and allegedly influencing some to vote against Jakarta's autonomy proposal, officials said.

"A voter didn't like the fact they were asking questions and had even told some of the other voters to choose the pro-independence option. So, they'd created trouble there for themselves," said the military official.

"They were taken in by local police and later handed over to the Dili police. The police found out that they in fact only had tourist visas while doing reporting work. That's illegal," he added.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Sydney a five-person crew, from the Nine Network's Sixty Minutes programme, had been detained at the police station where they sought shelter after being chased by pro-Indonesian militiamen.

Downer told reporters the crew had behaved in an "extremely provocative" manner. The military official said the four were arrested "for their own good."

Downer said the four crew had arrived with visitors' visas and without the necessary working visas or UN accreditation required by Indonesia. "Thirdly, they went to Liquisa, one of the more sensitive towns in East Timor, and they decided that it would advance the story they were producing if they were to interview people and ask them how they had voted or how they were going to vote," said Downer.

"The UN with the support of countries like Australia and the United States and others has worked long and hard to do everything we could to ensure this was a secret ballot.

"Even to ask people to expose publicly how they had voted would be seen, if I could put it diplomatically, by many people in East Timor and even elsewhere as extremely provocative."

The military official identified the four as Paul Ewan Boocock, 43, Mark John Llewe, 38, David Michael Norton Smith, 53, and Richard George Carleton, 56. He said they were being deported from Dili airport via Bali.

Sixty Minutes reporter Carleton accused pro-Jakarta militiamen of punching a woman working with his crew. "I was talking to people in the voting line and one of the militia came over and he sought to intimidate them," Carleton said here.

"I remonstrated with him, I asked him not to. I asked him why he was doing it and the crowd laughed at him and I think that's probably what caused the greatest offence.

"After that, a group of the militias became very angry and violent. They attempted to punch us and kick us – they punched one of the women that was working with us."