The arrest of two Reuters journalists in Yangon this week was a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar and the international community must do all it can to get them released, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, 14 December.
Guterres said his main concern over Myanmar was the "dramatic violations of human rights" during a military crackdown in Rakhine State that forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country for southern Bangladesh, and the arrest of the journalists was probably related.
“It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country,” he told a news conference in Tokyo, referring to the detention of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been working on stories about the strife in Rakhine State.
"And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy," he added.
Myanmar's government said on Wednesday, 13 December, that police had arrested two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. The reporters had been working on stories about a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rahkine State that has caused almost 6,50,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Information said, in a statement on its Facebook page, that the journalists and two policemen face charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
The reporters "illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media," said the statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the pair in handcuffs.
It said they were detained at a police station on the outskirts of Yangon, the southeast Asian nation's main city.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went missing on the evening of 12 December, after they had been invited to meet police officials over dinner.
Reuters’ driver Myothant Tun dropped them off at Battalion 8’s compound at around 8 pm and the two reporters and two police officers headed to a nearby restaurant. The journalists did not return to the car.
‘Attack on Freedom of Press’
The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say their exodus from the mainly Buddhist nation was triggered by a military counter-offensive in Rakhine state that the United Nations has branded "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
“Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been reporting on events of global importance in Myanmar, and we learned today that they have been arrested in connection with their work,” said Stephen J Adler, president and editor-in-chief of Reuters.
“We are outraged by this blatant attack on press freedom. We call for authorities to release them immediately,” he said.
A spokesman for Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed that the two journalists had been arrested. "Not only your reporters, but also the policemen who were involved in that case," spokesman Zaw Htay said. "We will take action against those policemen and also the reporters."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert emphasized that the agency was “following this closely.” She said that US Ambassador Scot Marciel on 13 December had a conversation with two government officials in Myanmar who seemed “genuinely unaware” of the situation.
We care about the safety and security of international reporters who are simply just trying to do their jobs. So we’re going to continue to try to stay on that.Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman
The US embassy in Yangon said in a statement posted on its website on 13 December that it was “deeply concerned by the highly irregular arrests of two Reuters reporters after they were invited to meet with police officials in Yangon last night”.
"For a democracy to succeed, journalists need to be able to do their jobs freely," the embassy said. "We urge the government to explain these arrests and allow immediate access to the journalists."
The EU delegation is closely following their case and we call on the Myanmar authorities to ensure the full protection of their rights. Media freedom is the foundation of any democracy.The European Union’s mission in Yangon also voiced concern.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the reporters’ immediate and unconditional release.
“These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative.
Britain’s Concerns
Britain has expressed "grave concerns" to the government of Myanmar over the arrest of the two journalists, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in London on Thursday.
“We are committed to freedom of speech and people’s ability to report the facts and bring into the public domain what is happening in Rakhine state,” he said. Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland tweeted that she was “deeply concerned” by the reports about the arrests. “Freedom of the press is essential for democracy and must be preserved,” she said.
And the president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani also called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar said it was "appalled" by the arrests and "gravely concerned" about the state of press freedom in the country. In a statement, it called on the authorities to ensure the safety of the reporters and allow their families to see them.
The foreign correspondents' club in neighbouring Thailand said it was "alarmed by the use of this draconian law with its heavy penalties against journalists simply doing their jobs".
“Wielding such a blunt legal instrument has an intimidating effect on other journalists, and poses a real threat to media freedom,” the Bangkok-based club said in a statement, calling for the journalists to be released.
“Four Words”
Wa Lone, who joined Reuters in July 2016, has covered a range of stories, including the flight of Rohingya refugees from Rakhine in 2016 and, in much larger numbers, this year.
He has written about military land grabs and the killing of ruling party lawyer Ko Ni in January. This year he jointly won an honorable mention from the Society of Publishers in Asia for Reuters’ coverage of the Rakhine crisis in 2016.
He previously worked for The Myanmar Times, where he covered Myanmar's historic 2015 elections, and People's Age, a local weekly newspaper, where his editor was Myanmar's current Minister of Information Pe Myint.
Kyaw Soe Oo, an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist from state capital Sittwe, has worked with Reuters since September.
He has covered the impact of the 25 August attacks on police and army posts in the northern Rakhine, and reported from the central part of the state where local Buddhists have been enforcing segregation between Rohingya and Rakhine communities.
He previously worked for Root Investigation Agency, a local news outlet focused on Rakhine issues.
“I have been arrest” were the four words that Wa Lone texted to Reuters Myanmar Bureau Chief Antoni Slodkowski on the evening of Tuesday, 12 December to let him know what was happening. Very soon after that Wa Lone’s phone appeared to have been switched off.
Over the next 24 hours, Reuters colleagues in Yangon filed a missing persons report, went to three police stations, and asked a series of government officials what had happened to the two reporters. They got no official information until Wednesday, 13 December evening.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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