Jeremy Hunt, the British Foreign Secretary, on Monday vowed to champion the cause of two Reuters journalists jailed for their reporting of the Rohingya crisis, in a case that has been denounced as a new low for press freedom in Burma.

A Burmese court sentenced Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, to seven years in prison for breaching a law on state secrets while they were investigating the mass murder of ten Rohingya men.

The Foreign Secretary added his protest to global condemnation of the ruling - the latest in a long series of human rights abuses in Burma to undermine the reputation of Nobel Peace laureate and civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Imprisoning journalists who write about inconvenient truths is an unconscionable blow to press freedom, and indeed everyone's freedom. Will be raising the extremely serious case of the two Reuters journalists on my forthcoming visit to Burma (Myanmar)”, Mr Hunt said on Twitter.

The two journalists had pleaded not guilty to violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. They protested that they were framed by police while investigating allegations of the massacre of a group of Rohingya men by the military.