15, Dec 2017 | CJP Team

Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, both Myanmar citizens who were working on the persecuted Rohingya minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, were arrested this week. They have been arrested under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Reuters reported that police officers they were meeting with were also arrested. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speculated that the reporters were arrested “because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy,” referring to the Myanmar forces’ campaign against the Rohingya that has caused over 600,000 to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, CNN reported. The Secretary-General said the arrests indicated the “erosion of press freedom” in Myanmar. In September, the United Nations’ human rights chief described the situation in Myanmar as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”