The two reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are accused of ... more

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A judge in Myanmar said he will issue a verdict next Monday in the trial of two Reuters journalists accused of possessing secret state information, a case that has become a key test of media freedom in the former military dictatorship. Closing arguments were heard Monday in the trial of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are charged with illegal possession of official documents and face possible jail terms of up to 14 years under a law dating back to British colonial rule, when the country was called Burma. The two reporters had been working on a story about a massacre of Muslim Rohingya men by security forces in a village in Rakhine state during a counterinsurgency operation that critics say involved massive human rights violations and was responsible for driving 700,000 people to flee for their lives into neighboring Bangladesh.
The judge in the trial of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar announces that he will deliver his verdict on August 27, in a test of press freedom in the country. The journalists were investigating mass graves at the village of Inn Din and the massacre that took place there when they were arrested for allegedly obtaining "secret documents".