Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for the release of two French journalists and their fixer detained in Togo.

The documentary filmmakers were arrested on July 27 in Kara, northern Togo.

Sadibou Marong is Director of RSF’s Sub-Saharan Africa office:

"They are currently in Lomé, being held, let’s say, in a detention camp, in a detention centre, but not in prison. We also know that many things have happened in this situation, in the case of these two journalists, but for us, what matters most is freedom of expression, freedom of the press. For us, it is important that the Togolese authorities are able to release these journalists."

The three men were placed in pretrial detention on Monday and charged with making “false declarations” in immigration procedures.

"It is important to point out that they were not doing anything illegal; they were simply doing their job and reporting, in a way, on the daily lives of the Togolese people as part of a documentary series with an international scope," Marong said.

"There is absolutely nothing, let’s say, political, nothing illegal in what they did. This is why we are particularly insistent on the importance of their release.”

The arrests come amid mounting tensions between Lomé and the French media. In April, Togo suspended broadcasts by French state-owned networks Radio France International and France 24.

The move to censor foreign media outlets came as President Faure Gnassingbé faced increasing pressure from critics over changes in the constitution that could effectively keep him in power indefinitely. Critics have called the changes a constitutional coup.

The team was filming an episode of a documentary series for a French public television network.

They're not the first French journalists to be detained, Marong said:

"In 2024 there was also a French journalist, Thomas Dietrich, who was in Togo to do his job as a journalist, and who was arrested, tried and eventually expelled. We have seen that. We have also seen that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the international press, of all persuasions, to enter the country."

Northern Togo has been plagued in recent years by attacks from armed groups linked to al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State group.