Reuters scribes jailed: 'Advocate of freedom of expression is also necessarily a practitioner', world awaits Aung San Suu Kyi's response

A Myanmarese court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in jail for breaching a law on state secrets in a landmark case that has been largely seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

The judge hearing the case against the two journalists — Wa Lone (32) and Kyaw Soe Oo (28) — said that they had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents. The two were detained in Myanmar in December 2017.

The verdict comes amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in western Myanmar in August 2017.

More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to UN agencies. The two reporters, who were investigating the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest, had pleaded not guilty.

Suu Kyi under criticism

The jailing of two Reuters journalists shreds what remains of Suu Kyi’s reputation as a rights champion, critics say, when she failed to come to their defence after she did not speak up for the persecuted Rohingya minority. During her long years of house arrest under the former junta — which choked the media inside Myanmar — it was foreign correspondents who carried her message of peaceful defiance to the outside world.

However, her response to the Rohingya crisis has sent her international reputation into a tailspin. Former friends and supporters have looked on aghast at her lack of criticism of last year’s military campaign against the Rohingya. In August, UN investigators said that campaign was pursued with “genocidal intent”.

Bill Richardson, a US diplomat and until recently a Suu Kyi confidante, alleges that she denounced the two journalists when he tried to raise their plight in person. “Suu Kyi’s response was filled with anger, referring to the journalists as traitors,” the former New Mexico governor said.

Prosecutions of journalists and media intimidation more redolent of the junta years have been common. Around 20 journalists were prosecuted in 2017, many under a controversial online defamation law. At the same time Suu Kyi has been accused of backing misinformation and distorted reports about the Rakhine crisis.

State media published by the Suu Kyi-controlled Ministry of Information has continuously echoed the military line, rejecting allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya as “fake news”. That has put her at odds with a mountain of evidence and an international community calling for justice.

The Guardian quoted a report that said at least 38 people had been charged with online defamation since April 2016, most under the infamous Article 66D of the Telecommunications Law. Reporter Maung Maung Tun, who was slapped with defamation rights in December 2016, said, “I feel very disappointed, very sad,” he says. “Now it is getting worse than before in terms of freedom of press and freedom of speech. For the state media, the minister [of information> has changed but nothing else has changed.”

Laura Haigh, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher, said, “They dismiss reports of rights abuses as ‘fake news’ and allegations of sexual violence as ‘fake rape’, yet at the same time are not allowing independent journalists full and unfettered access to the area.

“Those who do report on the situation face threats and intimidation which has had a chilling effect on press freedom and has led some media workers to self-censor," she said.

The Guardian report quotes Maung Saungkha, poet and activist: " Saungkha likens the desire for free speech in his country to the thirst for water after a long drought. The quantity poured out since the new government took power would not make up even a litre, he says with a wry smile, tapping an empty bottle on the table of a café. “Just one cup.”"

Suu Kyi and freedom of speech 

The year 2012 was apparently an eventful year for Suu Kyi as she travelled abroad to accept her Nobel Peace Prize, speak to the British Parliament, meet with the then-President Barack Obama and receive the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington DC, Suu Kyi hailed the importance of free speech in a piece for The Guardian. Titled ‘ The Fight for Freedom begins with Freedom of Speech ’, Suu Kyi highlighted the importance of speech and wrote, “When speaking out against existing wrongs and injustices is disallowed, society is deprived of a vital impetus towards positive change and renewal.

Censorship laws that ostensibly protect society from iniquitous influences generally achieve little that is positive. The most usual result is a pervasive atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that strangles innovative thought.”

She further added that “It has been rightly pointed out that what is most important is not so much freedom of speech as freedom after speech.” Using the example of “long years of authoritarian rule” in Myanmar, she said that members of the “movement for democracy” had been punished for “speaking out in protest against violations of human rights”.

She said, “The few who spoke out were articulating the silent protest of the many who had been cowed into submission.” In conclusion, Suu Kyi said that, “An advocate of freedom of expression is necessarily also a practitioner.”

Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent the duration between 1989 and 2010 in some form of detention as a result of her work to bring democracy in the then-military ruled Myanmar. She was hailed as an icon of peace even in a situation of oppression. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but was able to receive in only in 2012.

In 1947 after her father, a freedom fighter was assassinated Suu Kyi left Myanmar only to return to the country in 1988. It was at this point that Myanmar was in political upheaval against the military rule and Suu Kyi felt compelled to stay and put up a peaceful fight for democracy. BBC reported that , in a speech in Rangoon in August 1988, she said, “I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on,” and got involved in leading the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win.

Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 and was released in November 2010. In 2015, her party National League for Democracy won the first openly contested elections in a landslide victory.

In recent years, she has faced criticism due to her response to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and her denial of ’ethnic cleansing' of the Rohingya Muslims of the state.