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YANGON • Two Reuters journalists accused of violating Myanmar's secrecy laws during their coverage of the Rohingya crisis must be tried, a judge said yesterday in a decision quickly denounced as a "black day" "for the freedom of the press. Yangon District Judge Ye Lwin accused 32-year-old Wa Lone and 28-year-old Kyaw Soe Oo of violating the official secret law of the colonial era, which provides for a maximum penalty 14 years in prison. The journalists pleaded not guilty.
The judge stated that the court had laid charges against both journalists under section 3.1 (c) of the law to investigate charges that they had collected and obtained secret documents concerning security forces.
The proceedings will now enter the trial phase, during which defense counsel will summon witnesses before the judge, who will then render a verdict, according to legal experts.
Reuters says both are innocent doing their job by reporting a massacre of Rohingya Muslims in September, and urged the court to dismiss the case. The reporters say that they were trapped by the police – a version of the events apparently backed by a whistle-blower who said the officers had been ordered to set up the reporters
. Two policemen, whom they had not yet met, handed over rolled papers to a restaurant in northern Yangon.
Police captain Moe Yan Naing told the court that he had been ordered to "trap" The police officer has since been sentenced to one year in prison for violating the police disciplinary code , and his family was expelled from their homes in what the government claimed to be
The lawsuit against the couple was castigated by human rights groups and foreign observers as an attack against freedom of the media and an effort to stifle reporting on the Rohingya crisis.
"It's a dark day for press freedom in Myanmar," said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's director of crisis response, calling the court decision "stuffed" and "politically motivated".
the case, saying, "We have the right to a defense.The court did not decide that we were guilty."
In court, Kyaw Soe Oo denied any wrongdoing saying: "I worked as an ethics reporter."
"We are deeply disappointed that the court refused to" Stephen Adler, Reuters editor, in a statement
AGENCY FRANCE-PRESS, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
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