Reuters Staff
(Reuters) - Many nations, including the United States,
Canada and several European countries, as well as top United Nations and EU
officials are among those calling for the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone
and Kyaw Soe Oo from detention in Myanmar.
The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12, after being
invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of Yangon, and accused of
violating Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Don’t miss: Massacre in Myanmar: One grave
for 10 Rohingya men http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events
They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in
Rakhine state, from where nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled since
August and sought refuge in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.
During an appearance on Tuesday at the Insein district
court in Yangon, a police officer who was part of the team that arrested the
pair testified that he had burned the notes he made at the time, but did not
say why he had done so.
How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed
in a remote village https://reut.rs/2EuWCcB
via @ReutersUK
An application for bail by the two reporters was declined
at a previous court hearing.
Reuters President and Editor-In-Chief Stephen J. Adler
has called for the journalists’ prompt release.
“We believe the court proceedings will demonstrate their
innocence and Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo will be able to return to their jobs
reporting on events in Myanmar,” he said in a statement.
Here are comments on their detention from governments,
politicians, human rights groups, journalists and press freedom advocates
around the world:
LATEST REACTION
- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said
the two Reuters journalists remained imprisoned for pursuing a story about
previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine State.
“Independent reporting like theirs highlights the urgent
need for Burmese authorities to cooperate with an independent and credible
investigation into any allegations of atrocities in Rakhine,” Haley said in a
statement. “A free press is one of the foundations of democracy and human
rights. Journalists must never be arrested for doing their jobs. We call on the
Burmese authorities to free these reporters and cooperate fully with an
independent investigation into the atrocities taking place in their country.”
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has
called on the international community “to do whatever it can” to secure the
release of the two Reuters journalists.
“The Secretary-General has expressed his concern at the
erosion of the press freedom in Myanmar and he has called for the international
community to do whatever it can to secure the release of the journalists and to
ensure press freedom in the country,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said
last week.
- United Nations human rights spokesman Rupert Colville
also called last week for the accusations against the journalists to be
dropped, saying: “We are alarmed by the serious erosion of freedom of
expression in Myanmar.”
- The Norwegian embassy in Myanmar has called for the
immediate release of the reporters. “Journalists must be able to do their job
without fear, intimidation and prosecution,” the embassy said in a post on its
Facebook page.
- The Danish embassy in Myanmar has also demanded the
immediate release of the two Reuters journalists.
- Shawn Crispin, Senior Southeast Asia Representative of
the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote on Twitter last week: “Myanmar must
stop blocking news coverage of the Rohingya tragedy in Rakhine state. Set them
free now.”
- Surakiart Sathirathai, the head of a new international
advisory panel on the Rohingya crisis, said in an interview last week that he
and other panel members had been “reassured again and again that the case would
be accorded with the due process of law and criminal justice procedure”.
Surakiart said last month that the panel could not
intervene in the case.
- AAPP, a Thailand-based group working to free political
prisoners in Myanmar, said last week in a Twitter message: “Denying bail for
Reuters Journalists after arrest under colonial era law further erodes the
right to press freedom and denies Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo their rights as
journalists and citizens.”
GOVERNMENTS, MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS
- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the
United States was “demanding their immediate release or information as to the
circumstances around their disappearance”.
- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has also called for
the immediate release of the reporters. “A free press is critical to a free
society - the detention of journalists anywhere is unacceptable,” Clinton wrote
on Twitter last month.
- Senator Ben Cardin, the leading Democrat on the United
States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the arrests of the two
journalists “outrageous” and said it brought back memories of “repressive
military rule”.
- The European Union, Britain, Holland, Canada and Sweden
have demanded the release of the Reuters reporters. Australia has expressed
concern and Bangladesh has denounced the arrests.
- Yanghee Lee and David Kaye, the U.N. special
rapporteurs on Myanmar and on freedom of expression respectively, said,
“Journalism is not a crime. These detentions are another way for the government
to censor information about the military’s role in Rakhine State and the
humanitarian catastrophe taking place.”
- Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano said, “Freedom of
the press is extremely important, including in order to protect fundamental
human rights. The Japanese government would like to watch (this matter)
closely.” Tokyo-based Human Rights Now has called on Japan to take a stronger
stance.
JOURNALISTS, NGOS
- A group of 50 Pulitzer Prize winners has called the
arrests “an outrageous attack on media freedom” and demanded the immediate
release of the pair. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are brave, principled and
professional journalists who were working in the public interest and were
jailed simply for doing their jobs,” the Pulitzer Prize winners said in a
statement.
- The New York Times has said in an editorial that
releasing the two journalists immediately “would help restore at least some
lost faith” in Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.
- Washington-based Freedom House, Human Rights Watch,
Reporters Without Borders and advocacy group Fortify Rights have also demanded
Myanmar release the Reuters journalists.
- The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Myanmar said it was
“appalled” by the arrests and “gravely concerned” about press freedom in
Myanmar.
- The Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Thailand, Foreign
Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines, Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’
Club and Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong have issued statements
supporting the journalists.