Myanmar uses colonial-era law to jail journalists for seven years
Yangon — Two Reuters journalists accused of breaching Myanmar’s state secrets law during their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims were jailed for seven years on Monday, drawing outrage over the attack on media freedom and calls for their immediate release. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been held in Yangon’s Insein prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, a draconian British colonial-era law that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. The case has sparked an outcry among the international community as an attempt to muzzle reporting on the 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state. Army-led "clearance operations" drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities — rape, murder and arson — by Myanmar security forces.
The reporters denied the charges, insisting they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10...
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