Myanmar urged to free Reuters journalists

International Desk: A media watchdog has accused authorities in Myanmar of acts of intimidation against journalists, as it renewed a call for the "immediate and unconditional release" of two Reuters reporters arrested last week.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were taken into custody on December 12 after being invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, according to Reuters.

The news agency said that little is known of the accusations against the pair, other than that they were detained for allegedly possessing classified documents related to Rakhine state, where a brutal army crackdown has forced almost 650,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Myanmar nationals' whereabouts were still unknown on Monday, almost a week after their detention, which has been widely condemned by the UN, human rights groups and a number of foreign governments.

The office of Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw has since authorised the police to proceed with the case against the two reporters, according to media reports on Monday.

In a statement on Monday, Daniel Bastard, Asia coordinator for Reporters Without Borders, said Myanmar's government had yet to provide an acceptable legal basis for the two reporters' arrest.

"We still don't know what is the nature of the so-called secret documents the two journalists were allegedly in possession of," he said, adding that the authorities' reluctance to "comment on these documents reinforce our impression that this is all just a pretext to intimidate journalists". 

Myanmar's Ministry of Information last week described the documents as "important and secret", saying that they "related to Rakhine State and security forces".

It also released a photo of the pair in handcuffs standing behind a table bearing papers, cell phones and currency, and said they were being investigated under the Official Secrets Act, which was passed in 1923 and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Last week, Stephen J. Adler, Reuters' Editor-In-Chief, described the pair's arrest as a "a blatant attack on press freedom", while Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, expressed "concern" about "the erosion of press freedom in the country".

"Probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive tragedy," he added, referring to the mass exodus of the Rohingya ethnic minority.

Source: Agencies



risingbd/Dec 19, 2017/Mukul