Jayapura – Five Australian TV journalists were being deported from Indonesia on Thursday after traveling to restive Papua province on tourist visas, police and witnesses said.

Presenter Naomi Robson of the public affairs program "Today Tonight" and four members of her film crew were escorted by immigration officials on board a commercial flight from Papua to the capital, Jakarta, said Papua Police Chief Maj. Gen TommyJacobus. From Jakarta they will be deported, he said.

"They admitted to being journalists who were intending to report on events here," Jacobus told reporters. "It is best if we deport them."

The five journalists were questioned by immigration officials on their arrival in the Papuan capital Jayapura on Wednesday. Indonesia requires foreign media workers to obtain journalist visas before they arrive in the country. Extra permission is required to visit Papua, where a low-level separatist conflict has simmered for years.