Case against Reuters journos can proceed

Myanmar's civilian President Htin Kyaw, a close ally of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has authorised the police to proceed with a case against two detained Reuters reporters accused of violating the country's colonial-era Official Secrets Act, a senior government spokesman said.

Journalists Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested last Tuesday evening after they were invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs has already submitted the case to the Office of the President," Zaw Htay, spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi, said by phone late on Sunday. He added that the president's office had given approval for the case to go ahead.

Zaw Htay could not be reached yesterday to clarify whether Htin Kyaw or Suu Kyi had been personally involved in the decision.

Approval from the president's office is needed before court proceedings can begin in a case brought under the Official Secrets Act.

A number of governments, including the United States, Canada and Britain, and United Nations' Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler and a host of journalists' and human rights' groups have criticised the arrests as an attack on press freedom and called on Myanmar to release the two men.

But two senior figures in the NLD yesterday joined the criticism of how the two men are being treated.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on the authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the pair.