Myanmar silent on journalists' whereabouts

Two Reuters journalists have completed a week in detention in Myanmar, with no word on where they were being held, as authorities proceed with an investigation into whether they violated the country's colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Journalists Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested last Tuesday after they were invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"We and their families continue to be denied access to them or to the most basic information about their well-being and whereabouts," Reuters President and Editor-In-Chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement calling for their immediate release.

Myanmar's civilian president, Htin Kyaw, a close ally of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has authorised the police to proceed with a case against the reporters.

Approval from the president's office is needed before court proceedings can begin in cases brought under the Official Secrets Act, which has a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

The two journalists had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis that has seen an estimated 655,000 Rohingya Muslims flee from a fierce military crackdown on militants in the western state of Rakhine.