(Image source from: Reuters)
About 100 Myanmar youth activists and journalists called for the release of two jailed Reuters journalists on Sunday, warning that the seven-year prison terms handed to the pair this month threaten the public's right to information.
In the heart of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, demonstrators including high-school students gathered peacefully held signs and chanted slogans denouncing the guilty verdict against the two journalists. A small gathering of police looked on as the protesters released black balloons printed with the words "Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo".
The 32-year-old Wa Lone and 28-year-old Kyaw Soe Oo, who are reporters were convicted on September 3 under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in a case that was seen as a test of democratic freedoms in Myanmar.
Related content: U.S. Joins in Outcry against Myanmar's Jailing of 2 Reporters
A journalist involved in organizing the protest, Thar Lun Zaung Htet said the verdict against reporters who were "just doing their job" would stifle reporting in Myanmar.
"Losing press freedom means our democratic transition is going backward," he said.
The verdict drew calls from senior United Nations officials, political figures including the United States Vice President Mike Pence and human rights advocates around the world for their immediate release.
Last week, the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi said at a forum in Hanoi that the case had nothing to do with freedom of expression.
The Nobel laureate said the reporters had been sentenced for handling official secrets and "were not jailed because they were journalists".
A rare statement was published from groups within the country on Friday by six Myanmar journalist organizations criticizing the country's leader, saying they were "disappointed" with her comments.
The reporters, who pleaded not guilty, said they were handed rolled papers by police shortly before they were detained last December, and a police witness testified in court that they had been set up.
The reporters had been probing the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and local Buddhists amid a military response to insurgent attacks past August.
About 7,00,000 Rohingya crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh fleeing the suppression, which United Nations-mandated investigators said earlier this month was launched by senior Myanmar generals with "genocidal intent".
Signs held by the protesters on Sunday included the messages "Murder is not a state secret" and "revealing the truth is not a crime".
By Sowmya Sangam
