Former Mail & Guardian journalist Farouk Chothia and his Cameroonian colleague Ange Ngu Thomas were still under house arrest in Limbe, Cameroon, on Thursday.
Chothia, a producer for the BBC, was detained on Sunday together with BBC reporter Ngu Thomas on accusations of spying.
The journalists arrived in Bakassi on Saturday to cover the handover of the formerly disputed, oil-rich region between Cameroon and Nigeria. A 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice awarded the territory to Cameroon, and Nigerian troops are to pull out by September 15.
BBC spokesperson Michael Gardner told the M&G on Thursday that at the time of their arrest the journalists were travelling with the full knowledge of the Cameroonian authorities. They had obtained signed authorisation from Cameroon Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, he said.
Soldiers patrolling the border arrested the two on Sunday, Associated Press reported this week. The news agency quoted Cameroon Communications Ministry official Jean Paul Mbiya as claiming that the journalists’ travel permit did not extend to Bakassi: ”What did they go to do in Bakassi? They were there as spies.”
On Thursday Agence France Presse reported that the journalists’ equipment, identity papers and authorisation to report were confiscated by soldiers. The two have been placed in a hotel under surveillance.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for their immediate release.
”Journalists should be allowed to report freely in Bakassi in the run-up to the handover,” said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper.
The CPJ has criticised Fame Ndongo in the past for his attacks on media freedom, including shutting down Cameroon’s only private newspaper last year, and the detention of three journalists.
Gardner told the M&G that the BBC does not know under what conditions the journalists are being held, but is sending its lawyers to represent them and secure their release.