Myanmar detained two Reuters journalists on Tuesday evening after they were invited to meet with police officials in the city of Yangon, according to the outlet. The pair had reportedly left to go to a restaurant with two officers, and were reported missing when they did not return.
Burmese spokesman Zaw Htay confirmed to Reuters that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been apprehended.
“Yes it is correct that they were arrested,” he told the international news agency, which is based in London. “Not only your reporters, but also the policemen who were involved in that case. We will take action against those policemen and also the reporters.”
The journalists were taken into custody for allegedly intending “to send important security documents regarding security forces in Rakhine State to foreign agencies abroad,” Agence France-Presse reported, citing Myanmar’s information ministry.
Reuters has closely covered the conflict in Rakhine State, where hundreds of thousands of minority Muslims known as Rohingyas have fled to escape violent, state-sponsored persecution.
“I have been arrest,” Wa Lone texted to Reuters Myanmar bureau chief Antoni Slodkowski on Tuesday night, before his phone appeared to have been switched off. Reuters employees in Yangon filed a missing persons report, went to three police stations and asked a series of government officials about their disappeared colleagues, according to the publication. They hadn’t received any details of the arrests by Wednesday.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo “have been reporting on events of global importance in Myanmar,” Stephen J. Adler, Reuters’ president and editor-in-chief, said Wednesday. “We learned today that they have been arrested in connection with their work. We are outraged by this blatant attack on press freedom. We call for authorities to release them immediately.”
A lawyer involved in the case told the BBC that the reporters could face 14 years in prison.
Wa Lone, 31, has reported on many issues, including the Rohingya crisis, since joining Reuters in June 2016. He previously worked for English-language newspaper The Myanmar Times, and has written for HuffPost as a contributor.
Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, has reported for Reuters since September, and has also covered the Rohingya crisis.
U Myint Kyaw, a member of the Myanmar Press Council, an independent organization that advocates for the news media, said he is “very concerned about the arrests of these two journalists.”
Between 80 percent and 90 percent of government documents in the country are considered confidential or secret under the law, he told The New York Times.
“Very few documents are public documents,” he said. “We don’t have a Freedom of Information Act in our country yet.”
Media freedom “unfortunately does not have a place” among the Burmese government’s priorities, according to Reporters Without Borders. “Widespread racist attitudes towards the Rohingya people restrict free and independent coverage of the humanitarian crisis [there].”
The U.S. embassy spoke out on the arrests Wednesday, calling them “highly irregular” and demanding a response from the Burmese government.
“For a democracy to succeed, journalists need to be able to do their jobs freely,” the embassy said Wednesday in a statement. “We urge the government to explain these arrests and allow immediate access to the journalists.”
The European Union’s mission in Yangon also said it is “closely following” the situation. “Media freedom is the foundation of any democracy,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Shawn Crispin, a senior Southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the organization called on Burmese authorities to release Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
“These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance,” Crispin said.
This article has been updated with comment from Adler, and with additional details surrounding the arrest.