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2017 Foley Medill Medal for Courage Recipients Sentenced to Prison in Myanmar Over Rohingya Investigation

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Journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, recipients of the 2017 James Foley Medill Medal for Courage, have each gotten a seven-year prison sentence in Myanmar for violating the country’s Official Secrets Act in the course of their investigative reportage on an alleged massacre of Rohingya Muslims there, CNN reported Sept. 3.

The Myanmar nationals had been detained since Dec. 12, 2017.

“Before their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were painstakingly reconstructing the killings of 10 Rohingya men last September, following their path from a beach in the Rakhine state, where government troops and Buddhist villagers plucked them from among a crowd of villagers seeking refuge, to their mass grave nearby,” a June 2018 Medill press release reads. “The two reporters told each of the men’s stories, shining a light on their lives as well as on their deaths.”

Reuters shared a statement from their Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler in a Sept. 3 tweet from their Reuters Top News account.

You can read the Reuters story that came out of their controversial reporting here. You can also read the Daily Northwestern’s story on their sentencing here.

The reporting team’s Reuters colleagues have taken to Twitter since the sentencing to condemn the court’s decision and advocate for his release.

ProPublica tweeted in solidarity with the Reuters team.