The West Papuan tribe at the centre of the Naomi Robson controversy has clarified that even though Naomi Robson was clearly possessed by malign spirits, they were not be willing to eat her. "Even if we did still eat humans, we don't like the taste of bile," an elder said.

Robson has defended herself from the allegations, saying that she had not been planning to save the child Wa-Wa from a potential ritualistic killing. "My make-up trucks would never make it into such a remote area," she said.

Despite being deported, the experience had some positive aspects for the Today Tonight crew, who were flattered to be told by the Indonesian government that they needed journalist visas.

"Apparently they were worried we might portray the Indonesian army as an oppressive force in West Papua," said one Today Tonight reporter. "But we explained that as long as they didn't move to Australia and open a dirty restaurant, they'd have nothing to worry about."

Nine's 60 Minutes program has already rejected the story, but they say this was only because it was prohibitively expensive, and had not previously been covered by the BBC's Panorama program. "It was very expensive for just one boy threatened by cannibals," said a Nine spokesman. "If he was threatened by cannibals and also trapped down a mine, we might have considered it."

Robson and all the other Australian journalists have now returned home, to the great relief of Wa-Wa's tribe. "Frankly, between being victimised by tabloid journalists and cannibals, I'd take the cannibals," one elder said.

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