Aung San Suu Kyi defends jailing of journalists who exposed Rakhine massacre, says critics didn’t bother to read the verdict
‘They were not jailed because they were journalists, but because the court has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act’
Myanmar’s unofficial leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday that two Reuters journalists jailed for investigating a massacre in Rakhine state were not convicted because they were journalists but because they broke the law.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were each imprisoned for seven years last week for breaching the country’s hardline Official Secrets Act while reporting atrocities committed during the military crackdown in Rakhine.
The sentence prompted a storm of global outcry as an assault on freedom of speech, while erstwhile rights champion Suu Kyi came under intense pressure for failing to speak up for the pair.
The case was held in open court … I don’t think anybody has bothered to read the summary of the judge
She broke her silence on the issue on Thursday during a discussion at the World Economic Forum, robustly defending the court’s decision to jail the duo.
