JFCC STATEMENT ON JAILING OF TWO REUTERS JOURNALISTS IN MYANMAR
Wed, 5 Sep 2018
Dear JFCC Members & Friends,
We strongly condemn the jailing of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar for seven years after being found guilty of breaching a law on state secrets. This verdict sends a deeply concerning message about press freedom in the country. The reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in Rakhine State. They had pleaded not guilty and told the court police planted documents on them during their work. The judge said the two had breached the Official Secrets Act and the court determined that “confidential documents” found on the two would have been useful “to enemies of the state and terrorist organizations”. Documents in their possession and on their phones were “not public information”, the judge said. One police witness testified a restaurant meeting was a set up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of the mass killing in Rakhine.
The JFCC Executive Committee