The jailing of two Reuters reporters while investigating the Rohingya crisis has sparked mounting public protests in Myanmar, with an online campaign under the hashtag #ArrestMeToo gathering pace.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday after they were found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act. They had been investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims when they were arrested in December.

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Now 83 local journalist networks, women’s rights groups and youth activists have united to release a statement calling for the journalists to be released after the ruling which was condemned worldwide as a travesty of justice and a severe blow to press freedom in the south-east Asian country.

The statement said the Reuters duo were doing their jobs. “The decision indicated that the entire trial process was neither free nor fair and was completely manipulated”, it said.

More than 70 protesters in Mandalay peacefully held posters with the words “free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo” in the city centre. There were no loud chants or stunts. Most sat with their heads bowed and the posters held high.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters kneel silently with images of the Reuters journalists in Myanmar. Photograph: DVB

At one rally in the town of Pyay, Min Nyo carried pink placards bearing the faces of the two reporters. Myae Latt said he was demonstrating peacefully because “we object to the conviction … We are now worried for ourselves, if our turn will be next.”

Another, Kaung Myat Min, agreed the conviction on Monday sent a threat to journalists. He also pointed to the unjust treatment of the pair when they were first detained and held in a secret location for two weeks. The journalists told the court they were sleep deprived when being questioned, and hooded when they were being transported between locations. “They were interrogated for whole days and nights and forced to kneel down during their interrogation.”

Newspapers have reflected similar concerns. Newspaper 7 Daily a blacked out part of its front page, and a knife spearing a newspaper with the words “who’s next?” featured in a Myanmar Times political cartoon.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A screengrab of the ‘Arrest Me Too’ campaign slogan. Photograph: The internet

Immediately after the verdict was handed down, protesters ran in front of the police vehicle and stopped it momentarily so Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo could quicky speak to fellow journalists. Kyaw Soe Oo told the crowd: “You can put us in jail, but do not close the eyes and ears of the people.”

Small demonstrations were held leading up to Monday’s verdict, but they have grown in reach across the country: from Myanmar’s largest city Yangon to Mandalay in the centre of the country and smaller towns such as Pyay and Thahton. In other parts of the country silent prayer ceremonies were held for the journalists.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A political cartoon in the Myanmar Times in reaction to the jailing of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for seven years. Photograph: Thein Tun/Myanmar Times

The peaceful protests also took place on social media. A campaign by a group of journalists with the hashtag #arrestmetoo began on Facebook and Twitter. Its message read: “If a journalist was arrested for the datas and phone numbers they collected … arrest me too.”

Tha Lun Zaung Htet from Myanmar Committee to Protect Myanmar Journalists explained that the hashtag drew attention to the judge’s verdict statement, which accused the journalists of threatening national security because they had the phone number of the Arakan Army rebels. Myanmar journalists frequently contact rebel or ethnic armed groups for interviews when reporting on the many conflicts inside the country and along disputed borders. Photographer Paing Soe Oo said: “If they [Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo] are arrested for that case, all reporters should be arrested because we all have a contact number of ethnic armed groups.”

On the weekend, activists walked through the streets of Yangon with black balloons. One of the organisers of the “right to information” protest, Thinzar Shunlei Yi, said the protests on Tuesday after the sentencing had evolved to encompass not only their arrest, but also “not just an emotional response but a call to the public to look at this form of oppression, and to urgently come together to review what is going on in the country”.





