Channel 4 yesterday said it was "deeply concerned" and working to free a four-man film crew, including two British subjects, who have been arrested on suspicion of spying in Liberia.
The four men - including director Mr David Barrie and cameraman Mr Tim Lambon, South African cameraman Mr Gugulakhe Radebe and award-winning Sierra Leonean filmmaker Mr Sorious Samura, were arrested in their hotel rooms in the capital, Monrovia, on Friday.
They are accused of being "engaged in acts against the security of the state" and would appear in court soon, Liberia's Justice Minister, Mr Eddington Varmah, said.
The team had been in Liberia for nearly three weeks working on an African politics documentary commissioned by Channel 4 when police raided their hotel rooms and seized their videotapes.
The arrests came after the material contained on the tapes was declared as "damaging" to the Liberian government, Mr Varmah said.
Channel 4 denied the allegations and stressed that the team was engaged in legitimate journalistic activity.
The regime of Liberian President Mr Charles Taylor has been much in the news recently over accusations by British and American officials that it has been the main conduit for diamonds smuggled out of Sierra Leone by that nation's brutal rebel army, the Revolutionary United Front.
Mr Taylor, a former warlord in Liberia's seven-year civil war, which ended in 1996, has longstanding ties to the Sierra Leonean rebels.
The Rev Jesse Jackson, US President Bill Clinton's special envoy to Africa, said yesterday he had made a direct appeal to the Liberian president to release the four men.
"I appealed to President Taylor to free these journalists immediately," he said. "I told him their detention could only contribute to isolating Liberia."
Mr Jackson said Mr Taylor promised to give the request "his highest consideration", but only after the men appeared before a magistrate today.