Myanmar grants jailed Reuters journalists amnesty

Mail and Guardian
 07 May 2019

Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo gesture as they walk to Insein prison gate after being freed, after receiving a presidential pardon in Yangon, Myanmar. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Two Reuters journalists who had been jailed for their reporting on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar walked out of prison on Tuesday, freed in a presidential amnesty after a global campaign for their release.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were mobbed by media as they stepped out of Yangon’s notorious Insein prison after their lengthy detention.

Democracy is on the ropes in Myanmar and the rest of the world

The Washington Post 

By Editorial Board

April 23 at 1:47 PM

Opinion 

 

Reuters journalists Kyaw Soe Oo, left, and Wa Lone are handcuffed as they are escorted by police out of a court in Yangon, Myanmar, in September 2018. (Thein Zaw/AP)

  

TWO JOURNALISTS in Myanmar, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were among those from Reuters awarded the Pultizer Prize for international reporting this month for documenting the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority. But these two will not be enjoying the hugs of family and applause of colleagues. They are in jail — unjustly, in a case that can only cause outrage at what has gone wrong in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Reuters Journalists Jailed in Myanmar to Receive U.N. Press Freedom Prize

TIMES
By Wilder Davies
April 11, 2019

Reuters journalist Wa Lone (C) leaves a district court in Yangon on July 9, 2018 after being charged with another journalist Kyaw Soe Oo under the Official Secrets Act for illegally obtaining classified military documents that exposed extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims by the military in Rakhine State.

Kyodo—Kyodo 

Two Reuters journalists who are currently serving seven-year prison sentences in Myanmar are to be awarded a prize for press freedom by the U.N.’s cultural organization.

The 2019 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize, which honors the defense and promotion of press freedom, is being awarded to Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo as a tribute to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression, according to a press release from UNESCO. The two journalists had been working on stories about a military crackdown and alleged human rights violations in Rakhine state in Myanmar when they were arrested. They were also named as TIME’s Person of the Year, along with three other journalists and a news organization, last December.