Myanmar Jailing Of Reuters Pair ‘Deeply Troubling’ – Pence • Channels Television

The jailing of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar over their reporting of the Rohingya crisis is “deeply troubling”, US Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday, describing a “free and independent” media as a core American value.

Speaking to Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the sidelines of a summit in Singapore, he criticised the seven-year sentence meted out to Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, over their coverage of a massacre of Rohingya men during an army operation last year.

The pair, both Myanmar nationals, were charged under the draconian state secrets act after meeting police who handed them documents.

Reuters have appealed the verdict insisting they were entrapped by authorities to muzzle reporting of abuses by Myanmar’s…