Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were released as part of an annual amnesty that has freed thousands of prisoners since last month. Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, only discovered she was pregnant after her husband's arrest. Reuters' journalists Wa Lone (C, front) and Kyaw Soe Oo (C, back) are escorted by police as they leave the court after their first trial in Yangon, Myanmar, 10 January 2018. YANGON (Reuters) - Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were freed on Tuesday months after being sentenced to seven years in jail on convictions under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Bangkok, May 7, 2019– Reuters’ journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were released today from a Yangon prison in Myanmar as part of a presidential pardon, after spending more than 500 days behind bars, Reuters reported. These are external links and will open in a new window These are external links and will open in a new windowTwo Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar for their reporting on the Rohingya crisis have been freed.Wa Lone, 33 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29 were released after a presidential amnesty. "I'm really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. Their daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan, is three years old. Reuters' editor-in-chief said the reporters - who last month won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for their work - had become "symbols" of press freedom. - After the north of Rakhine State erupted in violence in 2017, Kyaw Soe Oo started working for Reuters, where he and Wa Lone uncovered a massacre of Rohingya men and boys in the village of Inn Din. Their baby girl, Thet Htar Angel, was born on Aug. 10, 2018, in a Yangon hospital. I can't wait to go to my newsroom," he told reporters.Both men have families with young children. Here are some key facts about the two journalists, who had been detained since Dec. 12, 2017: - Wa Lone, 33, was born to a rice farming family in Kin Pyit, a village of fewer than 500 people in the dry plains of central Myanmar’s Sagaing region. - Months after Wa Lone joined Reuters, an insurgent group from the Rohingya Muslim minority announced itself with attacks on police posts in the western state of Rakhine. During more than 500 days behind bars, their reporting on a military crackdown in Rakhine State was recognised with international awards and they were named by Time magazine as its “Person of the Year” alongside other journalists last year. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are a pair of young Reuters journalists who were imprisoned by the government of Myanmar while reporting on the killings … He worked as a reporter for outlets including the Myanmar Times, an English-language newspaper where he met his future wife, Pan Ei Mon. He authored some of the books himself, including Jay Jay the Journalist, which he wrote while incarcerated at Yangon’s Insein prison. He has only seen his daughter a handful of times on her visits to prison. They spent more than 500 days in prison on the outskirts of Yangon.They had been convicted under the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in jail last September.Their jailing was seen as an assault on press freedom and raised questions about Myanmar's democracy.As he left the prison, Wa Lone vowed to continue his reporting and said he was excited to return to work at the international news agency.
Their case was widely seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar, and the country's de facto leader "I've been so happy that I couldn't even eat my breakfast," said Kyaw Soe Oo's mother, Shin Htwee. - Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, comes from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and was born to a Buddhist family from the Rakhine ethnic group that makes up the majority in the state.