Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah, respectively directors of the bi-weekly L'Alternative and the weekly Fraternité, were arrested on December 10 after complaints from two ministers for comments made in a program broadcast on Youtube.
"The two journalists were granted provisional release on Friday, following a third request that we made," Elom Kpadé told AFP.
"But they are placed under judicial control," he said.
Both Mr. Ayité and Mr. Egah are being prosecuted for "contempt of authority" and "spreading falsehood on social networks".
A third journalist, who had also participated in the show, was already placed under judicial supervision.
According to the public prosecutor Talaka Mawama, these journalists are being prosecuted "on the basis of the penal code", their comments having been made on a social network.
However, this "means of communication is excluded from the scope of the law relating to the press and communication code", he explained on December 15 on national television.
Two days earlier, Amnesty International had already denounced the "arbitrary detention" of the two press men and demanded their "immediate" release, denouncing "an attack on freedom of expression".
Local human rights organizations and opposition parties have also called in recent days to release the two journalists.
The Alternative and Fraternity are newspapers critical of the government.
The Alternative was suspended in February for four months in a case involving the current Minister of Urbanism Koffi Tsolenyanu.
In March 2020, this newspaper was sanctioned with two months of suspension after a complaint from the former French ambassador to Togo, Marc Vizy.
The newspaper Fraternité was also suspended in March 2020 for two months, following an article denouncing the suspension of two other newspapers.
© 2021 AFP