Myanmar frees Reuters reporters jailed for Secrecy Act crime
YANGON, Myanmar — Two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for breaking Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act over reporting on security forces’ abuses of Rohingya Muslims were pardoned and released Tuesday.
The convictions of Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had drawn condemnation from rights groups, Western governments and press associations, and the two journalists had garnered several awards and other honours. In April, they shared with their Reuters colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, one of journalism’s highest honours.
The two were freed after President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for 6,520 prisoners, said Zaw Zaw, chief of Insein Prison in the country’s largest city, Yangon.
Myanmar’s Supreme Court on April 23 had rejected the journalists’ final appeal against their seven-year prison terms. Their convictions were related to reporting on security forces’ abuses of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The reporters contended they were framed because of official displeasure over their reporting.