Skip to footer

Myanmar to free reporters detained for drone camera

Myanmar police said they will release two journalists, an interpreter, and a driver, after arresting the group for filming with a drone. Two Reuters journalists, who were jailed in December while covering the Rohingya refugee crisis, remain in custody.

|
Marko Djurica/Reuters
Rohingya refugees walk next to a pond in the early morning at the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh December 26, 2017.
  • By Shoon Naing Reuters

Myanmar police said on Tuesday they would drop pending charges against two journalists working for Turkey's state broadcaster, their interpreter and driver, who were jailed in November for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone.

Cameraman Lau Hon Meng from Singapore, reporter Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia, Aung Naing Soe – a local journalist who was interpreting for the pair – and driver Hla Tin were detained by police on Oct. 27 near Myanmar's parliament building in the capital Naypyitaw.

They are currently each serving a two-month prison sentence under a colonial-era aircraft law, but all four still face further charges for importing the drone. The two foreign nationals have also been charged with an immigration offense.

Police Lieutenant Tun Tun Win and an immigration officer – the complainants – appeared in a Naypyitaw courtroom on Tuesday and asked that the court drop the charges.

Tun Tun Win told Reuters higher police officials had ordered the case dropped because the four did not mean to endanger national security by flying the drone.

Additionally, he said, the decision was intended "to forward the relationship between countries," referring to the two journalists' home countries, Singapore and Malaysia.

A law officer – the government's prosecutor in the case – was expected to tell the court the charges were formally dropped in another hearing set for Thursday, defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told Reuters.

"The higher authorities already instructed to terminate with good intention, but the procedure can only be accomplished on that day (Thursday)," the lawyer said.

The four are set to complete their sentences under the aircraft act on Jan. 9, but may be released earlier for good behavior, he added.

The case had raised concerns over freedom of the press in Myanmar, where a civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi took power last year but the military retains control of security matters, including the police.

Two Reuters journalists were arrested on Dec. 12 after they went to meet police officers for dinner on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city Yangon. Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, have now been in detention for two weeks with no access to visitors or to a lawyer.

They had covered the crisis in western Rakhine state that has driven 655,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims across the border to Bangladesh since August.

The reporters are being investigated under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

(Reporting by Shoon Naing; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Myanmar to free reporters detained for drone camera
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2017/1226/Myanmar-to-free-reporters-detained-for-drone-camera
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe