I am innocent - Pakistan reporter

Mr Rizvi (centre) is led away by police outside the Quetta court

A Pakistani reporter imprisoned after he helped two French journalists making a film about the Taleban has protested his innocence in court.

Khawar Mehdi Rizvi told a court in the Pakistani city of Quetta the charges against him were framed to discredit foreign journalists.

Mr Rizvi was held incommunicado for a month after his arrest in December in Baluchistan province, near Afghanistan.

The French journalists he was with were deported earlier in January.

'Unpatriotic'

The Frenchmen were initially arrested for entering Quetta in violation of visa restrictions.

But the authorities also accused them of fabricating film footage of Taleban militants operating on Pakistani territory.

I am totally innocent... It looks from this incident that an effort is being made to hamper the credibility of the international media Khawar Mehdi Rizvi

Pakistan says it does not play host to members and sympathisers of the hardline Islamic Taleban militia, its one-time ally in Afghanistan.

Mr Rizvi appeared in court alongside two Pashtun tribesmen - all three, the authorities allege, played a part in the Frenchmen's documentary depicting a fictitious Taleban camp.

They were remanded in judicial custody after the court hearing.

Media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, has called for Mr Rizvi to be released unconditionally, and the United States has expressed concern at his treatment.

But Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said Mr Rizvi does not deserve any sympathy for his "unpatriotic" actions.