Two Reuters journalists say
they will fight charges of threatening the state security of Myanmar.
A court in Myanmar has
charged two jailed Reuters journalists with obtaining secret state documents
after six months of preliminary hearings.
Yangon district judge Ye
Lwin charged reporters Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, with breaching of the
colonial-era Official Secrets Act which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years
in prison.
Both journalists pleaded not
guilty to the charges, telling the judge they had "followed journalistic
ethics".
Outside the court, Wa Lone
said he and Kyaw Soe Oo had committed no crime and would testify to their
innocence in court.
"We will face the
court," he said. "We will not retreat, give up or be shaken by
this."
Reuters President and Editor-in-chief
Stephen Adler said the news organisation was "deeply disappointed"
with the ruling and called the case against the reporters "baseless".
"These Reuters
journalists were doing their jobs in an independent and impartial way, and
there are no facts or evidence to suggest that they've done anything wrong or
broken any law," he said.
"Today's decision casts
serious doubt on Myanmar's commitment to press freedom and the rule of
law."
The prosecution in the case
alleges the journalists collected and obtained secret documents pertaining to
the security forces with the intention to harm national security.
At the time of their arrest
in December, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the
killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar's
Rakhine State.
The reporters have told
relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled
up papers at a restaurant in northern Yangon by two policemen they had not met
before.
In April, Police Captain Moe
Yan Naing testified that a senior officer had ordered his subordinates to plant
secret documents on Wa Lone to "trap" the reporter.
After his court appearance,
Moe Yan Naing was sentenced to a year in jail for violating police discipline
by having spoken to Wa Lone, and his family was evicted from police housing.
Police have said the
eviction and his sentencing were not related to his testimony.
Source: AAP - SBS