Everyone’s efforts to get the word out on Andrew Berends and his detention in Nigeria have started to pay off. Senator Charles Schumer, D-New York has written a letter to Secretary of State Condelezza Rice calling for Berends’ immediate release:

This situation is untenable, said Schumer. Mr. Berends, an award-winning journalist was making a film about the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s oil-producing area where government forces and armed separatists have been fighting for years. Unfortunately, it seems that the Nigerian government thinks that it can conceal the economic and ecological disaster in the region by harassing and intimidating foreign journalists. This is unacceptable.

Way to go Senator Schumer and way to go everyone for getting the word out (Doug Fitzsimmons here at TakePart.)
takepart to read Senator Schumer’s entire letter and to keep up to date on the situation.

Read on:

• Keep up the pressure: Andrew Berends still in Nigerian custody
• Learn more about the detention of Andy Berends
• Andrew Berends, Documentary Filmmaker, Detained in Nigeria