{"id":7110,"date":"2019-05-06T23:50:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T06:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2019-05-16T00:47:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T07:47:49","slug":"message-of-the-day-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7110","title":{"rendered":"Message of the Day: Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reuters reporters U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Updated: We continue today on the theme of media, journalism, a free press–writ global–and the necessity of journalists providing information to the public as a basic requirement for human rights to be protected for all.<\/p>\n

Today was a great day for the world in terms of journalism and human rights.<\/p>\n

Reuters reporters U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo–whose courage like so many \u00a0journalists risking their lives and too often losing them in similar situations is legendary–were freed from prison in Myanmar (May 6 in the US, May 7 in Myanmar) after a year resulting from exposing the military’s horrid human rights atrocities against the Rohingya minority group.<\/p>\n

The two journalists had just won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting and it’s heartening–and critical–that international pressure to free them had a successful impact.<\/p>\n

We leave the rest to the reporters, from BBC News, The New York Times<\/em> and Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n

And in an update today, May 7, we add an excellent and important report from PBS NewsHour<\/em> where\u00a0John Yang talks to Priscilla Clapp, a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief of mission in the American embassy in Myanmar. Her insights about the complexities and limitations of\u00a0Aung San Suu Kyi being “between a rock and a hard place”, and the impact she may have had in the release of the journalists, are noteworthy.<\/p>\n

We also remind of our comments about Aung San Suu Kyi in August last year in The End Of Civilization As We Knew It Part Six<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The UN just began a process in the current refugee crisis in headlines that could lead to the generals in Myanmar, or Burma as many in the pro-reform anti-military dictatorship circles still refer to it as, being charged with genocide against Rohingyas. Clearly deserved. And though Aung San Suu Kyi has no real power, she too will be held accountable for her decisions, as she already has been in reputation. She walks her own knife\u2019s edge. It\u2019s heartbreaking to watch someone who suffered imprisonment for so many years for democracy and human rights take the path she apparently has, in which journalists exposing the terror imposed on the Rohingyas are now imprisoned. Her relationship with the generals is fraught, public posturing aside. She had been over many years, among other things, a powerful feminist symbol of rebellion against patriarchal brutality. The history, multi-ethnic group and political situation in Myanmar is extremely complex and the horrible situation now could easily become many times worse. But Suu Kyi must know that when certain lines are crossed, the option of not standing publicly and clearly against it ceases to exist and whatever one\u2019s private motives or perspective, public denunciation must be accepted if one fails to do this. Her quote on ignorance being the root of evil was on our site from the start of World Campaign nearly twenty years ago, while she was imprisoned. We kept it up over the last couple of years until recently out of hope, prodding and a reminder. And we are in the middle of a long-term change of the site. But her name needed to be removed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Following is today’s transcript from PBS NewsHour, followed by the articles in the\u00a0BBC News, The New York Times<\/em> and Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Why these reporters spent 18 months in a Burmese jail”<\/a><\/p>\n

Judy Woodruff and John Yang, May 7, 2019 PBS NewsHour<\/p>\n

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After nearly 18 months, two Reuters journalists have left prison in Myanmar. The crime that put them there: Revealing information the country\u2019s government wanted to suppress, about its persecution campaign against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority. John Yang talks to Priscilla Clapp, a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief of mission in the American embassy in Myanmar, about the developments.<\/em><\/p>\n

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