Journalists charged with espionage

Four foreign journalists have been formally charged in Liberia with espionage and criminal design after material which the government considered "damaging and injurious" to the state was allegedly found in their hotel rooms, news organisations reported. The four men - two Britons, a Sierra Leonean and a South African - were charged on Monday in the capital, Monrovia. The Liberian authorities said they believed a documentary they were making for London-based Channel-4 television was aimed at helping to bolster US and British claims that President Charles Taylor is involved in the weapons-for-diamonds trade with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Former South African President Nelson Mandela has joined British and US diplomatic efforts to help free the journalists, according to news reports. British Foreign Minister Peter Hain said: "Freedom of the press is a basic principle of international human rights. I urge the Liberian government to drop all charges and release the journalists immediately." The journalists were arrested at their hotel on Friday and are being held in Monrovia's central prison. They were due to appear in court again on Tuesday. "No one who comes here and commits crime will go free because he is a citizen of a big power," AFP quoted Taylor as saying. He said they would face trial before any consideration to grant clemency was made. Channel 4 said the charges were brought in court without legal representation for the men.