YANGON: Two Reuters reporters jailed Monday by a Yangon court for seven years for breaching a draconian state secrets law should be released, the UN's office in Myanmar said.
Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been held in Yangon's Insein prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act during an investigation into a massacre of Rohingya men.
"Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be allowed to return to their families and continue their work as journalists," the UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby.
"We continue to call for their release."
Reuters on Monday hit out at the jailing their reporters.
"Today is a sad day for Myanmar... and the press everywhere," Stephen J Adler, Reuters Editor-in-Chief, said in a statement, denouncing the charges as "false" and "designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press".