§ Mr. TynanTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the arrest of BBC staff by the Cameroon authorities. [185668]
§ Mr. MullinTwo BBC journalists were arrested in the Bakassi peninsula earlier this month. One was South African, the other Cameroonian. At the request of the BBC, the British High Commission in Yaounde made enquiries of the Cameroonian authorities on 12 July. The Cameroonian authorities had given the journalists permission to travel in Cameroon, but it was unclear whether their permits included the Bakassi peninsula. Partly as a result of our intervention, both journalists were released on 16 July.