Reuters reporters 'revealing the truth' - witness

Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and Wa Lone (photo), 32, are facing up to 14 years in prison for allegedly violating the country’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have told the court how they were “trapped” by police officials who planted documents on them.

During Monday’s session, their former teacher Ye Naing Moe, director of Yangon Journalism School, praised both reporters as curious and excellent students who had won multiple awards for stories focusing on the underprivileged and social issues.

“We haven’t seen any stories they wrote which have violated media ethics,” he said, explaining that the school monitored the work of its former students.

“I believe that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo performed the most important role of journalists which is revealing the truth,” said Ye Naing Moe. “Finding defects, problems and revealing them in a positive way gives a chance to fix things and that benefits the society and the country.”

A second witness, Thant Zin Soe, had worked with Wa Lone at a charity distributing humanitarian aid to the victims of natural disasters and described him as being consistently ethical, and “disgusted by corruption”.

At the time of their arrest in December, the journalists had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Inn Din village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The killings took place during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say sent some 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Kyaw Soe Oo’s wife and daughter and Wa Lone’s pregnant wife, who is just four days away from her delivery date, sat in a courtroom packed with diplomats.

“The day of decision will arrive soon. We believe that it will proceed in a fair and just way,” said Wa Lone, before he was taken back to jail. ■