Myanmar court refuses to dismiss charges against journalists
YANGON, Myanmar — A Myanmar court on Wednesday refused to dismiss a case against two Reuters journalists after the reporters’ lawyers insisted last week that the evidence doesn’t support the charges.
The case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo has been strongly criticized internationally as an effort by authorities to intimidate the press, especially its coverage of the sensitive situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the military is accused of massive human rights abuses against the Muslim Rohingya minority.
The two journalists were arrested Dec. 12, with police accusing them of violating the Official Secrets Act, a law dating from British colonial times, by acquiring “important secret papers” handed to them by two policemen who worked in Rakhine. If convicted, they could get up to 14 years in prison.
The two had worked on Reuters’ coverage of the crisis in Rakhine, where security forces’ response to a Muslim insurgents’ attack have driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh.