Two Reuters journalists arrested in Myanmar, face official secrets charges

[misskit]

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar’s government said on Wednesday that police had arrested two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. The reporters had been working on stories about a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rahkine State that has caused almost 650,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.


The Ministry of Information said in a statement on its Facebook page that the journalists and two policemen face charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.


The reporters “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media,” said the statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the pair in handcuffs.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1E71CO

[Maanaam]

So, what goes on in Rhakine is an official secret is what the government is saying.
That's a damning admission.

[Latindancer]

I would have thought that acquiring information was not illegal, but that the intention to share it with foreign media was. But then it's difficult to prove a future intention.

[Neverna]

The important question is, what information did they acquire that is deemed illegal?

[Klondyke]

But the situation there cannot be so bad when the USA is not very enraged (as in other cases is)...

[HuangLao]

Damn questioning and troublesome foreign journalists....

[misskit]

U.N. chief presses for release of arrested Reuters journalists in Myanmar

TOKYO/YANGON (Reuters) - The arrest of two Reuters journalists in Yangon this week was a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar and the international community must do all it can to get them released, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.

Guterres said his main concern over Myanmar was the “dramatic violations of human rights” during a military crackdown in Rakhine State that forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country for southern Bangladesh, and the arrest of the journalists was probably related.


“It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country,” he told a news conference in Tokyo, referring to the detention of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been working on stories about the strife in Rakhine State.


“And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy,” he added.


Myanmar’s Ministry of Information said in a statement on Wednesday that the Reuters journalists and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.


The reporters “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media”, the ministry said in its statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the two reporters in handcuffs.


Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say their exodus from the mainly Buddhist nation was triggered by a military offensive in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces at the end of August.


The United Nations has branded the military’s campaign in Rakhine State “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” of the minority Rohingya.


Guterres said the international community should do everything possible to secure the journalists’ release and freedom of the press in Myanmar.



He called for aid to be delivered, violence contained and reconciliation promoted in Rakhine State, and for the Rohingyas’ right of return to be fully respected and implemented.


LOCATION UNKNOWN

Britain has expressed “grave concerns” to the government of Myanmar over the arrest of the two journalists, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in London on Thursday.


“We are committed to freedom of speech and people’s ability to report the facts and bring into the public domain what is happening in Rakhine state,” he said.


The president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani also called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two.


Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went missing on Tuesday evening after they had been invited to meet police officials over dinner on the outskirts of Yangon.


The authorities have not confirmed where the journalists are being held and, as of Thursday evening, Reuters had not been formally contacted by officials about their detention.


At Htaunt Kyant police station, where the journalists were charged, family members of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were told that the pair were being detained at another location by an investigative team.


“They are not here,” said Police Second Lieutenant Tin Htway Oo, according to Pann Ei, wife of reporter Wa Lone. “The police investigation team took them soon after they were arrested.”


He said he did not know where the journalists were, Pann Ei added, but he did tell her they would be brought back to the station in “two to three days at most.”


Reuters could not immediately reach Tin Htway Oo for comment.


Police Lieutenant Colonel Myint Htwe of the Yangon Police Division told Reuters the reporters’ location would not be disclosed until the investigation was complete.


“It will be known later. Please wait a while,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1E8183

[misskit]

Jailing of journalists hides mass graves in Myanmar

The detention of two Reuters reporters likely aims to intimidate other media against reporting on emerging evidence of massive military atrocities

On December 12, two Reuters reporters went for dinner with a pair of police officers who they had never met before on the outskirts of Yangon. They were handed rolled-up documents and told they could view them once they returned home.
Shortly thereafter, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were accosted by seven or eight police, handcuffed and then held incommunicado at a black site for nearly a fortnight.


They have since had one court appearance, where they met briefly with their loved ones and legal team before being taken to Yangon’s Insein prison. They could be charged under the Official Secrets Act, which allows for 14-year prison terms.

The recent discovery of a mass grave in Maungdaw, the northern area of Rakhine state where military operations in recent months have driven hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring Bangladesh, could explain why Reuters was singled out for harassment.



State media reported that the pair obtained the documents by “deception” from police officers who had been “serving security duties in Maungdaw and Buthidaung in Rakhine State”, sites of the military’s “clearance operations” that sparked the Rohingya refugee crisis.


It seems clear now that the pair walked into a trap. State media has reported that two police officers were also arrested, but there has been no explanation or follow-up. Journalists in Yangon speculate the stitch-up signals a return to the treachery and threat the media faced under decades of military rule.


It’s a sobering reminder that despite the transition toward a quasi-democratic system the architecture of the former repressive security state — Special Branch, military intelligence, and a wide-reaching network of informants – was never made redundant.


Many here question what role, if any, electronic surveillance played. Either way, the arrests have sent a clear message that even high profile global news agency journalists are at risk, and the chilling effect is not to be underestimated. Even the most hardened journalists here are spooked by the Reuters arrests.


The fact that Reuters was investigating military abuses in northern Rakhine state was no secret: in the last few months its Yangon bureau has published comprehensive coverage of the military’s controversial “clearance operations.”


Several days after the reporters’ arrests, local media reported that five people from Maungdaw’s Inn Din village, site of the discovered mass grave, had been arrested. Anonymous sources suspected they may have provided information to Reuters, something a New York Times report later confirmed.


Reuters has declined to be drawn on any connection between the Inn Din villagers and their reporters’ arrests.


The army has announced it will investigate the mass grave at to determine whether security forces were involved. The probe is headed by Lieutenant General Aye Win, who is experienced in intra-military investigations.


A separate inquiry he led into reports of atrocities perpetrated by security forces in Rakhine state found that none were committed.


With outside access to the burnt-out villages of northern Rakhine almost entirely cut off, including denied permission to a United Nations fact-finding mission, independently confirmed evidence of a mass grave would have undermined the government’s carefully managed messaging on the crisis.


Even the most conservative estimates on body counts from the violence, which Médecins Sans Frontières ventures is somewhere near 6,700 in the clearance operation’s first month, would point to the fact that there are almost certainly many more mass graves to be found.


Witnesses and victims who have fled to Bangladesh claim to have seen troops burning bodies en masse on hastily-assembled pyres. Others were said to have been buried in shallow graves or dumped in the river, according to the same witnesses and victims.


At least a handful of senior government officials appear to be aware of and acknowledge the scale and ferocity of the violence, and are reportedly genuinely vexed over how to proceed. To date, though, there has been no significant breaking of the ranks.


The official line remains that what took place was a counterinsurgency operation and that any deaths were collateral. Testimony of abuses, including rape and summary executions of civilian noncombatants, is consistently painted by officialdom as outright fabrication.


The government insists that the lack of press access to northern Rakhine state is for reasons of security and points to the few and far between stage-managed media tours to the region as evidence of its commitment to press freedom.
These security force-escorted press tours have offered marginally more room to maneuver than a trip to Pyongyang, and interviewees face the real and potent threat of reprisals for speaking frankly to reporters.


International news outlets boycotted the first of these junkets on ethical grounds. Their concerns were not unwarranted: at least one man was apparently killed for daring to speak to the press on one of the tours.


Meanwhile, state media reports on the “progress” of the rice harvest on land left vacant by hundreds of thousands of fleeing Rohingya, or on new pond-farming initiatives and road developments in the now depopulated region.


Horror stories continue to trickle out on the other side of the border from interviews with refugees stuck in squalid, crowded camps.


In theory, privately held media outlets in Myanmar can publish what they like – and barring overt criticism of the military – the situation had been remarkably free in recent years.


But even before the Rakhine crisis arrests and legal harassment were increasing, causing many outlets to exercise extreme caution or outright self-censorship when reporting on issues perceived as sensitive. Many have been content to tow the official line on the Rakhine crisis, including refusal to even use the word “Rohingya” in their published reports.


It thus seems unlikely that any media outlets based inside Myanmar will critically counter the veracity of the army-led probe’s impending findings on the mass grave at Inn Din. Nationalist outrage has been weaponized, including over social media, against those who have highlighted abuses.


Many Rakhine question why the recent grisly murder of an ethnic Mro man has gone unreported by foreign media, while the killings of Hindu and Daignet villagers have been given scant attention.


A popular perception that international media harbors a pro-Muslim bent is dangerously growing. It is being exacerbated by a lockdown on travel authorizations to the region, including to previously accessible internally displaced person (IDP) camps outside of Sittwe, forcing many journalists to rely mainly on access to the camps in Bangladesh.


This chilling effect has extended beyond Rakhine state, with journalists concerned they could be charged with “unlawful association” or other repressive laws allowing for jail terms for reporting on other ethnic conflicts in Kachin, Shan and Chin states. There are several escalating situations the government has motivation to cover up.


But the branding of journalists as traitors or worse for questioning the official line harks back dangerously to the darkest days of direct military rule. Indeed, the sudden and rapid deterioration of press freedom conditions points to a broad closing of the country’s recently lauded democratic opening and the mounting fragility of that transition.

Jailing of journalists hides mass graves in Myanmar | Asia Times

[Neo]

But the situation there cannot be so bad when the USA is not very enraged (as in other cases is)...

and yet how vocal was the west to get her put in power

the silence is deafening...

[misskit]

Two Reuters journalists due to make second Myanmar court appearance

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has accused Reuters reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act, a little-used law from colonial rule.

MORE. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1EW0P1

[misskit]

Myanmar Court Officially Charges Two Journalists With Obtaining State Secrets

Two Reuters journalists were officially charged on Wednesday with obtaining state secrets while reporting on a military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state, an offense that carries a maximum jail term of 14 years.


Police arrested Thet Oo Maung, also known as Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, on Dec. 12 for violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Law by allegedly possessing classified documents about security forces in northern Rakhine state, where a military crackdown has driven about 655,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017.


Some Rohingya have accused security forces of committing atrocities against them during the crackdown, which was triggered by deadly attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police outposts.


Than Zaw Aung, an attorney representing the journalists, told RFA’s Myanmar Service following the journalists' second hearing in Yangon that the defense team submitted a bail petition to be considered at the next hearing on Jan. 23, hoping that the judge will grant an exception for what is otherwise not a bailable offense.


“We have a total of 25 witnesses,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “We are copying documents and getting ready to study this case. We have applied for bail today. Lawyers from both sides will argue on the bail issue at the next hearing.”


The court said it would consider the request and make a decision at that time.


Than Zaw Aung also insisted that the arrests amounted to entrapment by police, who had contacted them for a meeting in Yangon to hand over documents about the situation in northern Rakhine.


After Thet Oo Maung and Kyaw Soe Oo met over a meal with two officers who had been stationed in the conflict zone, they were taken into custody by other policemen.


“Actually, their arrest was entrapment,” Than Zaw Aung said. “Police called them to meet, gave them some documents, and they were arrested as soon as the police left. They didn’t even have a chance to see what the documents were.”
“These two policemen are now witnesses for the plaintiff’s side,” he said.


About 25 people, including international diplomats and family members of the accused men, were permitted inside the courthouse under tight security, he said.


Thet Oo Maung’s wife, Pan Ei, said they could only smile at each another in court.


“He is not very well and didn’t have time to eat while he was in court,” she said.


Upon leaving the courthouse, Thet Oo Maung said, “We have been arrested and charged in an unfair manner.”


Kyaw Soe Oo shouted: “Please tell the people to protect our journalists. We need to work for justice.”
'Journalism is not a crime'


Outside the courthouse, a group of Myanmar journalists, some wearing black T-shirts that said “journalism is not a crime” gathered to protest the detentions.


“We conducted a campaign for these reporters in front of the court today,” said Tharlon Zaung Htet, member of Myanmar's Committee for the Protection of Journalists. “We tried to show that we are standing together with them and that we stand by them.”


“We have complained to authorities because [their arrest] was entrapment,” he said. “We are thinking about doing campaigns during every hearing they have. We will also do sticker campaigns every two weeks in public, telling people that their arrest constitutes entrapment.”


Myint Kyaw, a member of the Myanmar Press Council, an independent organization that advocates for the news media, agreed that authorities entrapped the two reporters.


“It was planned entrapment,” he said. “Even though international groups have called for the reporters’ freedom, Myanmar authorities haven’t responded but are continuing to do what they want. It is not good for press freedom, and the images of the government and the military will be damaged.”


Rights groups and media organizations have blasted Myanmar’s civilian government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for continuing to use colonial-era laws to threaten and intimidate journalists who criticize the administration or the military.


“Reporters shouldn’t be arrested under a democratic government,” said Zaw Thet Htwe of the Myanmar Press Union, a former sports journal editor and political prisoner.


“We don’t know whether these reporters used illegal government documents or if it was entrapment,” he said. “The government and Home Affairs Ministry should release more information to make the case more transparent.”


Pyay Thway Naing, editor-in-chief of Khit Yanant Magazine, said that the government’s use of laws to arrest journalists is forcing the media to censor themselves.


“We are in a situation where we must conduct self-censorship instead of having more freedom in press,” he said.



Other countries weigh in


In a related development, a spokesman for the Japanese government said on Wednesday that officials want to discuss the issue of the detained Reuters reporters with the Myanmar government, including during Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono’s visit to the Southeast Asian nation this week, Reuters reported.


"The Japanese government has conveyed its concern about this matter to the government of Myanmar and, going forward, wants to discuss and make appeals at appropriate opportunities, including Foreign Minister Kono’s visit to Myanmar,” Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, was quoted as saying in response to a question.


Suga also noted the importance of guaranteeing freedom of expression and basic human rights in all countries, the report said.


The U.S., France, and Denmark expressed dismay after Wednesday’s court hearing and issued calls for the government to release Thet Oo Maung and Kyaw Soe Oo.


“We are disappointed by today’s decision to pursue charges against Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under the Official Secrets Act,” the U.S. embassy in Myanmar said in a brief statement. “For democracy to succeed and flourish, journalists must be able to do their jobs. We call for their immediate release.”


France’s Foreign Ministry in a statement called “for the respect of their fundamental rights, their immediate release by the Burmese authorities and the free access of the media” to Rakhine state.


Denmark’s embassy in Myanmar issued a statement saying that it is “indeed very disappointing that an old draconian law from the colonial era is being used by a democratically elected government to suppress press freedom.”

Myanmar Court Officially Charges Two Journalists With Obtaining State Secrets

[Mandaloopy]

Meh, they'll just stamp their feet and chuck out a tizzy here and decry the rest of the world is wrong and ganging up on Myanmar. Honestly, they make the Thais look decidedly un-nationalistic. 80 days and counting...

[misskit]

Veteran U.S. diplomat Richardson to work for Reuters reporters release

(Reuters) - Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson said on Monday he would work toward securing the release of two Reuters journalists arrested in Myanmar in his capacity as a member of an international advisory board on the crisis in Rakhine state.

Richardson said he was chosen by Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi to sit on the 10-member board that will advise on how to implement recommendations of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan regarding the situation in the state.


Richardson told Reuters he would travel to Myanmar next week, along with the chairman of the advisory board, Surakiart Sathirathai, a former Thai foreign minister, who has also called for the journalists’ release. He said he was seeking an appointment with Myanmar’s Minister of Home Affairs.


“My objective, along with the chairman of the commission, is to get them out while we are there in Myanmar,” Richardson said in a telephone interview.



Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the Myanmar government, was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for Myanmar’s home (interior) ministry said he was not aware of any appointment for Richardson.


According to U.N. estimates, about 655,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a fierce military crackdown on militants in Rakhine. The Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, had been reporting on the crisis.

They were arrested on Dec 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner. Family members have said the two told them they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some documents by the officers they had gone to meet.


Richardson, 70, was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the administration of President Bill Clinton.



In 1995, Richardson negotiated with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to secure the release of two Americans detained after straying over the border from Kuwait and he frequently acted as a go-between with Communist North Korea.


Myanmar prosecutors sought charges last week against Wa Lone, 31 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, the reporters’ lawyer said.


Government officials from some of the world’s major nations, including the United States, Britain and Canada, as well as top United Nations officials, have called for the release of the reporters.


“One of the key (Annan) recommendations is the freedom of journalists to observe and report on the situation,” Richardson said. “Incarcerating these two individuals for potentially 14 years is not a good start.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1F50BR

[Latindancer]

Well, they've been twiddling their thumbs and eating shit food for 5 weeks, now.

[misskit]

How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

On Sept. 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded. During the reporting of this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.

STORY HERE. https://www.reuters.com/investigates...akhine-events/

[misskit]

Myanmar Court Rejects Motion to Dismiss Charges Against Reuters Reporters

A Myanmar court on Wednesday refused to drop a case against two journalists from Reuters news agency accused of violating the country's Official Secrets Act for their work investigating violence against Rohingya Muslims by the military in Rakhine state – a day after the country’s army jailed soldiers for committing the murders the reporters had documented.


Thet Oo Maung, also known as Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were formally charged on Jan. 10 with obtaining state secrets while reporting on a military crackdown on the Rohingya in northern Rakhine. They face up to 14 years in prison if found guilty.


Police arrested the pair on Dec. 12 on the outskirts of Yangon shortly after they had dinner with two police officers who gave them documents about the violence which has driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017.


At the time of their arrest, the two reporters were working on a story about the brutal murders of 10 Rohingya civilians from Inn Din village in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township. The news agency later produced a gripping account of the killings.


Although the Myanmar government had repeatedly rejected allegations of wanton killings, the country's military commander-in-chief’s office announced on Tuesday that seven officers and soldiers of other ranks involved in the killing of those 10 Rohingya been sentenced to 10 years in prison.


The villagers were shot or hacked to death by soldiers and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbors who dumped their bodies in a mass grave in early September. Their remains were discovered three months later.


The extrajudicial killings were part of the military’s crackdown on the Rohingya, who also bore the brunt of torture, rape and arson at the hands of soldiers during the crackdown in what United Nations officials have called a campaign of ethnic cleansing, if not genocide.


Lawyers representing the journalists filed the motion for a dismissal in late March, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges and inconsistencies in witness testimony.


Khin Maung Zaw, one of the lawyers representing the reporters, said the judge rejected the motion because eight of the 25 witnesses called in the case still need to testify.


“There might be some important witnesses in these eight,” he said. “That’s why the judge said he was rejecting the case.”


But with the sentencing of the military officers and soldiers involved in the Inn Din incident, the reporters’ families say they expected the court to drop the charges against them.


“We have always expected their freedom, and everybody knows their case is not fair,” said Wa Lone’s wife Pan Ei. “I want authorities to release them as soon as possible. I am getting so tired of pretending to be OK with this situation when I see him.”



Military investigation


A Myanmar military investigation team led Lieutenant General Aye Win of the army commander-in-chief’s office interrogated 21 officers and other soldiers, three members of Myanmar Police Force (MPF), 13 members of a security force, six departmental personnel, and six residents of Inn Din village, about the killings, according to reports by military-run media agencies on Tuesday.


In an extremely rare move in Myanmar, the team concluded that the murders of 10 Rohingya civilians, referred to as “Bengali terrorists,” without legal arrest, were extrajudicial killings.


Four army officers involved in the murders were dismissed from military service and sentenced to 10 years in a civilian prison with hard labor, while three others were demoted to private, dismissed, and sentenced to 10 years in jail, military-run media said.


Authorities are taking legal action against the MPF members and civilians who were involved in the crime, the reports said.


“The soldiers responsible for the Inn Din massacre were already sentenced to 10 years in jail,” Wa Lone told the media after his hearing. “But we, who reported about it, are facing 14 years in jail. Is that fair?”


“We report to unearth the truth, and we are being sued,” he said. “Where is the truth for us? Where is democracy and freedom?”


Kyaw Soe Oo repeated the sentiment, saying “The murderers were sentenced only to 10 year imprisonments. Is this democracy?”


The two reporters are been held in Insein prison on the outskirts of Yangon while they attend court hearings. Their next court appearance is scheduled for April 20.




Ten Rohingya men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village of Maungdaw township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Sept. 1, 2017.Credit: Reuters

‘They just did their jobs’

Myanmar media professionals blasted the judge’s decision, maintaining that the two reporters were framed by police.


“We don’t think reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo committed what they are being charged with,” said freelance journalist Myo. “They are journalists. They just did their jobs. It is not a crime.”


Nyein Chan Naing, regional officer of the European Pressphoto Agency, said the decision not to dismiss the charges is unfair.


“The reporters didn’t break into a police station and get the documents,” he said. “The policemen handed them the documents. We can’t say they violated the Official Secrets Act.”


Tharlon Zaung Htet, a member of Myanmar’s Committee for the Protection of Journalists, agreed that the decision is unfair.


“The commander-in-chief’s office announced yesterday that the soldiers and officers who killed the 10 Muslims were sentenced to 10 years to jail,” he said. That means it happened. The incident was true.”


“What the reporters wrote about that case wasn’t incorrect,” he said. “That’s why we hoped they would be freed today,” he said.



‘Miscarriage of justice’


New York-based PEN America called the judge’s decision to continue prosecuting the journalists a “miscarriage of justice.”


“Myanmar’s prosecutors are engaged in a politically motivated effort to punish the crime of journalism,” Suzanne Nossel, the organization’s chief executive officer, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.


“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in the course of compiling a rigorous, objective, and graphic exposé of irrefutable brutality,” she said. “Their arrest and imprisonment is a black mark on Myanmar’s nascent democracy. Reflecting the country’s refusal to reckon honestly with the crisis in Rakhine and denial of the essential role of the press in a free society.


PEN America, which in February awarded Wa Lone and Kyaw Saw Oo its PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award designed to honor writers imprisoned for their work, called for the charges against the pair to be dropped and for them and others to be allowed to freely report in Rakhine state.


On Feb. 8, Reuters published a report of the events that led to the killing of 10 Rohingya men, including two teenagers, from Inn Din village, whom it said were buried in a mass grave after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers. The report contained the bylines of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.


The next day, the Myanmar government shrugged off the report, saying that the foreign media is “hurting our work” restoring stability to the region.


The decision not to drop the charges against the reporters came the same day that Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s social welfare minister, met with a few dozen Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong displacement camp in southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. It was the first visit to the camps by a Myanmar cabinet member.


Win Myat Aye told the refugees that their repatriation to Myanmar was a priority, while they in turn presented him with a list of demands regarding their voluntary return.


His entourage was met by protesters, who unfurled a banner calling him a collaborator in and denier of genocide against Rohingya in Rakhine state, and chanted calls for justice. Police tried to disperse them, but others, including children, joined the protest.


Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to repatriate refugees who want to return to Rakhine, though the program has not yet gotten under way because of various delays.


https://www.rfa.org/english/news/mya...018164614.html

[harrybarracuda]

Myanmar court accepts testimony of policeman who said Reuters reporters framed

Shoon Naing, Yimou Lee
5 MIN READ

YANGON (Reuters) - A judge in Myanmar declared on Wednesday that a witness who said two Reuters reporters accused of possessing state secrets were framed by police was credible, dealing a blow to the prosecution in what has become a landmark press freedom case.

In what defense lawyers said was a key ruling in favor of the two reporters, the judge accepted the testimony of Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who said a senior officer had ordered police to “trap” one of the two journalists arrested in December.

Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said the judge ordered police to bring Moe Yan Naing to the next hearing on May 9, after a police officer told the court he was not present because he was sentenced last week to one year in prison for violating the Police Disciplinary Act.

“We need to question him more,” Judge Ye Lwin told Police Captain Myo Lwin, one of the officers who had escorted the two journalists to the courthouse, at the end of the proceedings.

Prosecutors had called Moe Yan Naing to testify against Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, but last week asked the court to declare him an unreliable witness after the account he gave about the reporters being “set up” appeared to undermine their case.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...+World+News%29

[OhOh]

under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Albion leaves the ambiguous laws for local interpretation.

who said a senior officer had ordered

Somebody suggested to Moe Yan Naing to change his presumably original sworn statement.

A mysterious death may occur before Moe Yan Naing is available to speak in the court?
Myanmar court refuses to drop case against Reuters journalist

"The two reporters have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers at a restaurant in northern Yangon by two policemen they had not met before, having been invited to meet the officers for dinner.
Police witnesses, however, have said the reporters were stopped and searched at a traffic checkpoint by officers who were unaware they were journalists, and found to be holding in their hands documents relating to security force deployments in Rakhine.


In its argument, the defence said the papers contained only publicly available information and could not be deemed secret. "

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se...rs-journalists

Military deployment papers, "publicly available"?. That statement's accuracy should be easily decided, whether true or not. Or does "publicly available" mean "when publicly handed to the reporters, by two police officers, in a public place"?

[harrybarracuda]

A mysterious death may occur before Moe Yan Naing is available to speak in the court?

Oh you little drama queen you.

[HuangLao]

Thanks for the updates, gents - regardless of your personal political convictions.
Decent info.

Ta...

[misskit]

A good news story, just for a change.

Reuters journalists Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo freed from Myanmar jail

Two Reuters journalists, jailed in Myanmar after being convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act, have been freed after more than 500 days behind bars.


The two reporters, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, were convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail in a case that raised questions about Myanmar's progress towards democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates.


"I am a journalist and I am going to continue," Wa Lone told a crowd of reporters outside the Insein prison in Yangon. "I can't wait to go to my newsroom."


Earlier on Tuesday, Myanmar said it will release 6,520 prisoners in an amnesty, according to a statement from the president's office.


MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...024627552.html

[harrybarracuda]

"I am a journalist and I am going to continue," Wa Lone told a crowd of reporters outside the Insein prison in Yangon. "I can't wait to go to my newsroom."

A brave man painting a target on his back like that.

[Neverna]

Reuters journalists Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo freed from Myanmar jail

Full credit to Reuters for this. They have not rested in keeping this in the public eye. They have published an article daily about these men and the case and it has paid off.

[harrybarracuda]

Full credit to Reuters for this. They have not rested in keeping this in the public eye. They have published an article daily about these men and the case and it has paid off.

I wonder what the other 6,248 freed were in for.

[RamblinWriter]

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar’s government said on Wednesday that police had arrested two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. The reporters had been working on stories about a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rahkine State that has caused almost 650,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.


The Ministry of Information said in a statement on its Facebook page that the journalists and two policemen face charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.


The reporters “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media,” said the statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the pair in handcuffs.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1E71CO

Gotta be careful doing that sort of shit in Burma (Myanmar), I don't think either of the two dudes are from the country either, making them foreign agents in the eyes of the Myanmar authorities now.

Still the reprieve they've been given shouldn't be squandered, as right now they'll have a large target on their back and will be watched closely.