Two Reuters journalists locked up in Myanmar for more than 500 days are now free, Reuters reports. Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29—who had been incarcerated near Yangon since being charged with unlawfully divulging state secrets—were released Tuesday after serving seven months of a seven-year sentence. Reuters has continually called for their release, asserting that the reporters did not commit a crime. Prior to their December 2017 arrest, the pair had been investigating the murders of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys who were killed by security forces and Buddhist civilians in the country’s Rakhine state. Their coverage was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in May, putting pressure on the government to reconsider their detention. President Win Myint has also pardoned thousands of other prisoners in the last month, part of a long-standing custom observed the time of traditional New Year, which started April 17.
