U.S. filmmaker provisionally released in Nigeria

LAGOS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities provisionally released a U.S. journalist late on Friday, almost a week after he was arrested for filming the army in the oil-producing Niger Delta, his colleagues and a rights group said.

Andrew Berends, a freelance journalist, was arrested last Sunday for filming a deployment by a joint military taskforce which patrols the delta, where the army has been battling rebels demanding greater local control over oil revenues.

The army said Berends had been arrested because he had not sought clearance to film in the region. He was handed over to the State Security Services (SSS) to ascertain his mission.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Berends and his local translator Samuel George, arrested with him, were due to report back to the authorities on Monday.

"Nigeria's democratic government has made enormous strides since the days of dictator Sani Abacha, when dozens of journalists were arrested and held under terrible conditions," CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in a statement.

"Detaining journalists for doing their job is unbefitting of the country's new leaders. We hope that the ordeal of Andrew Berends and Samuel George will soon be over."

Nigeria's record on press freedom is much better than that of many African countries and journalists freely criticise the government. However, there are occasional incidents of journalists being detained and the SSS has been named a "predator of press freedom" by Reporters Without Borders. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Charles Dick)