LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field urged the authorities of Myanmar in a statement on Monday to immediately free the two recently convicted Reuters journalists.
Earlier in the day, the two journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been reporting on the Rohingya crisis, were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating a state secrets act of Myanmar.
"I am extremely disappointed that 2 Reuters journalists in Burma, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have today been found guilty and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for nothing more than doing their jobs. They provided valuable reporting on abhorrent human rights violations in Rakhine State, and I have consistently called for their immediate release, including directly with the Burmese government," the statement reads.
He stressed that in any democratic country, journalists must have possibilities to work without fear.
"This verdict has undermined both freedom of the media and the rule of law in Burma ... We call again today for their immediate release," Field added.
In turn, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani also called for the release of the two journalists.
"I call for the immediate release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, unfairly imprisoned for doing their jobs in Myanmar. Journalism is not a crime," he wrote on Twitter.
The tensions between Rohingya people and Myanmar authorities flared in August. The two journalists had been investigating the killing of Rohingya in the Inn Din village in September. The massacre was one among many episodes of persecution of the Muslim minority.
