3 Sep 2018; DW: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted of collecting state secrets by a court in Yangon. They had been investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya in Rakhine. The UN condemned the ruling, demanding the reporters' release.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted of collecting state secrets by a court in Yangon. They had been investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya in Rakhine. The UN condemned the ruling, demanding the reporters' release.
'A test of press freedom'
The landmark case attracted international attention as the Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is accused of condoning and abetting a violent crackdown by Myanmar's security forces on the Rohingya minority.
The UN, US, UK and other ambassadors to Myanmar, some of whom were present for the ruling, condemned the ruling, calling for the reporters' immediate release. "The United Nations has consistently called for the release of the Reuters journalists and urged the authorities to respect their right to pursue freedom of expression and information," UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby said.
German Human Rights Commissioner Bärbel Kofler also slammed the verdict, calling it a "severe setback for press freedom in the south-est Asian country." The reporters, she said, did "nothing but support the effort to find out the truth in Rakhine."
At least least 11 journalists have been arrested since last year, many under repressive laws dating back to colonial times.
A UN report stated last week that security forces committed grave human rights abuses in Rakhine state, where the military drove out more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year. The Myanmar government rejected the report's findings.
