Algiers - Two Algerian television journalists charged with broadcasting blasphemous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed have been acquitted by a criminal court, a judicial official said on Monday.

The state prosecutor had demanded a five year prison sentence for journalists Lotfi Chriet and Houria Khater and two years for the technicians involved in the broadcast by the two public television stations Canal Algeria and A3.

Canal Algeria had said in defence of the accused that a "technical error" had led to the ten-second transmission of the caricatures because the videotape had not been checked in advance.

The cartoons were first published in a conservative Danish newspaper in September 2005 and republished by various newspapers around the world, provoking anger within the Muslim community. - Sapa-AFP