Asian media organisations have urged the Indonesian government to immediately release two French journalists who have spent a month in jail in Papua.
Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat face up to five years in jail and 42,000 US dollar fines, after being accused of breaching their tourist visas by practising journalism.
The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism reports the Southeast Asian Press Alliance has decried the continued detention of the pair, who were filming a documentary for the French-German TV network Arte.
Foreign journalists covering Papua are routinely barred from entering by the Indonesian government.
The authorities also seized their video footage, audio recordings and phones.
Papua's provincial police have accused the two of supporting separatists, saying they will prove they are not journalists.
The immigration chief in Jayapura, Gardu Ditiro Tampubolon, says there is strong evidence against the pair.
Indonesia's Papua region: the provinces of West Papua and Papua Photo: RNZ
