TWO journalists who were imprisoned for breaking the Official Secrets Act in Myanmar over reporting on security forces’ abuses of Rohingya Muslims have been pardoned and released.
The convictions of Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had drawn condemnation from rights groups, Western governments and press associations. The two journalists were also awarded several press prizes.
In April, they shared with their Reuters colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, one of journalism’s highest honours.
The two were freed after President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for 6520 prisoners, said Zaw Zaw, chief of Insein Prison in the country’s largest city Yangon.
On April 23, Burma’s Supreme Court had rejected the journalists’ final appeal against their seven-year prison terms.
The reporters contended they were framed because of official displeasure over their reporting.
“We are enormously pleased that Myanmar has released our courageous reporters” said a statement issued by Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler.
MEANWHILE, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party is facing fierce criticism after it was announced an Istanbul mayoral vote would be rerun.
Ruling in favour of Erdogan’s governing party, Turkey’s top electoral body on Monday annulled the results of the March 31 vote in Istanbul, which opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu narrowly won. The body scheduled a rerun for June 23.
The loss of Istanbul – and the capital of Ankara – in Turkey’s local elections were sharp blows to Erdogan and his conservative, Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, or the AKP.
The AKP had challenged the results of the vote, claiming it was marred by irregularities.
Critics have accused the AKP of clinging to power in the city of 15 million people that is Turkey’s cultural and commercial hub and of exerting heavy pressure on the country’s electoral body to cancel the outcome.
ELSEWHERE, China has confirmed its economy tsar will go to the United States for trade talks despite fears he might cancel after US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate a tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions.
Vice-premier Liu He will visit Washington this week for the 11th round of talks on tariffs. He will meet US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Washington is pressing Beijing to roll back plans to develop Chinese global competitors in robotics and other technologies. Trump announced on Sunday that he would increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, causing global stock markets to plunge.
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