On Monday 9 July, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service called for the charges to be dropped against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Ook, two Burmese journalists from the news agency Reuters. The spokesperson also called for the two journalists' immediate release as they have been "prosecuted for merely exercising their rights to freedom of expression and carrying out their jobs".
In a press release, the spokesperson said the court decision, taken earlier in the day to press charges against the two journalists under the country's Official Secrets Act of 1923, threatened "fundamental freedoms, a free media and the public’s right to information in Myanmar". Prosecuted for breaching the country's Official Secrets Act for having investigated the massacre of Rohingya Muslims, the two journalists risk 14 years in prison.
"Journalists and media workers must be able to work in an environment free from fear of intimidation, harassment, undue arrest and prosecution, and require protection in order to promote transparency and accountability in any society", the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson stated that since the arrest of the journalists on 12 December 2017 for their reporting on the situation in Rakhine State, EU diplomats have observed every court hearing. "The EU has continuously raised the matter with the Myanmar government", the spokesperson stated. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)