TWO Myanmar journalists who exposed a military massacre appeared in court in Yangon today in a case that could see them jailed for 14 years, a day after they won a press freedom award.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on December 12 for allegedly violating the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act by receiving “important secret papers” from two policemen.

The story they were working on — a detailed investigation into the slaughter of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Din by soldiers and Buddhists from a neighbouring village in September — was published by Reuters last week.

The two men were awarded the Freedom to Write prize by the US branch of PEN yesterday.

The case against the two reporters has been strongly criticised as an effort to intimidate the press and deter coverage of the military’s bloody offensive against Muslims that began last August.

Wa Lone told reporters as he left court today that “we worked in accordance with media ethics.”

The court session included testimony from the fourth prosecution witness, a police officer who said he took part in the arrest.

But the reporters’ lawyer Than Zaw Aung challenged his evidence, questioning whether he was even present.

“So far, the court case is going normally and the article that Reuters has published did not really affect the court case,” Than Zaw Aung said. “According to the law and the legal process, we are trying as hard as we can to get things done.”