'€œThey not only abused their tourist visas, they also contacted a number of sources in Papua,'€ Press Council chairman Bagir Manan told reporters at a conference in Jakarta on Friday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said the council had sent a letter to the Law and Human Rights Ministry'€™s immigration directorate-general, requesting the deportation of both journalists.

Meanwhile kompas.com reported that Bagir had asked the government to view this as an immigration violation only and, therefore, deportation was the proper punishment.

Regarding the relationship between the two journalists and armed civilian groups in Papua, he said the government needed to declare certain areas as open or closed in a bid to prevent people from easily entering them.

'€œWe do not treat foreign and local journalists differently. The only difference is that foreign journalists need to obey immigration regulations and they need to have a valid permit to stay here,'€ he said.

Voicing the same concerns, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) also called for the same action to be taken by the government regarding the French journalists.

'€œThey were members of a research team that communicated with several sources before another reporting team was due to visit the location [in Papua],'€ AJI chairman Eko Maryadi said.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Yotje Mende insisted that the two journalists had been spying, given their discussions with members of a separatist group led by Enden Wanimbo in Wamena.

He said investigators had become more suspicious after the two were caught '€œdeleting data from their laptops'€ while in police custody. (alz/nfo)

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