{"id":22980,"date":"2019-05-07T19:11:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T19:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jww.org\/?p=22980"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:37:28","slug":"freedom-at-long-last-for-reuters-journalists-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/freedom-at-long-last-for-reuters-journalists-in-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom, at long last, for Reuters journalists in Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we at Jewish World Watch are celebrating a momentous and long-awaited human rights victory: Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been released from prison in Myanmar (also known as Burma) after being imprisoned for more than 500 days! \u00a0Despite recently losing their final appeal before the <\/span>Supreme Court<\/span><\/a>, in a surprising turn of events, President Win Myint pardoned the two men as part of Myanmar\u2019s New Year\u2019s amnesty custom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were honored for their <\/span>reporting<\/span><\/a>, bravery, and sacrifice with a <\/span>Pulitzer Prize<\/span><\/a> last month. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues,\u201d Wa Lone told reporters as he exited the prison. \u00a0\u201cAnd I can\u2019t wait to go to my newsroom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI can\u2019t wait to go to my newsroom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The two men have become a symbol of the intractability of the Myanmar regime in the face of mounting evidence of its role in perpetrating genocide and other mass atrocities against the Rohingya population, which suffered decades of persecution and statelessness before the Tatmadaw began an annihilation campaign that caused more than 750,000 people, mostly women and children, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in squalid, overcrowded camps to this day. \u00a0Ann Strimov Durbin, JWW\u2019s Director of Advocacy and Grantmaking, recently visited the camps<\/a> as part of JWW\u2019s efforts to bring awareness to and identify means of supporting the survivors of the world\u2019s newest genocide. <\/span><\/p>\n

The two Reuters journalists were arrested while uncovering a massacre of 10 men related to the August 2017 crackdown by the Myanmar security apparatus, known as the Tatmadaw, against the Rohingya Muslim minority population of North Rakhine state. \u00a0They were falsely accused and imprisoned for violating Myanmar\u2019s Official Secrets Act, despite evidence during the trial demonstrating that documents had been planted on them during a meeting with police officials.<\/span><\/p>\n