Michael Mckenna – A senior staff member of the East Timor Post newspaper was allegedly beaten and arrested at the weekend in the latest of a series of incidents pointing to a crackdown on press freedom across the troubled country.

Less than a month after Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao threatened to arrest local journalists, claiming inaccurate reporting was contributing to national instability, East Timor Post senior layout editor Agustinho Ta Pasea was arrested on Saturday morning on his way to the Dili printing presses with a computer file of the paper's weekend edition.

Post editor Mouzinho De Araujo told The Australian Ta Pasea claims he was stopped at 2am, beaten by military police and then taken to a police station where he was assaulted again.

De Araujo said his staff member was held for 11 hours on grounds he had broken the 10pm-6am curfew in Dili, introduced during recent unrest: "He wasn't out there because of personal interests, but because of the national interests in trying to keep the people informed. Agus showed his identity card, explained he was taking the edition to be published and then these police punched him. He was later beaten at the police station by several men... Maybe, it is because our newspaper has been tough on authorities."

Ta Pasea was released early on Saturday afternoon with cuts and bruises to his face. The edition of the newspaper was published later that day, instead of the usual time of 7am. De Araujo said he had lodged a formal complaint with police and the Government.

In January, Mr Gusmao said 2008 was a year of reform that would include the local media.