The arrest of two Reuters journalists in Yangon this week was a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar and the international community must do all it can to get them released, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, 14 December. Guterres said his main concern over Myanmar was the "dramatic violations of human rights" during a military crackdown in Rakhine State that forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country for southern Bangladesh, and the arrest of the journalists was probably related. "And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy," he added. Myanmar's government said on Wednesday, 13 December, that police had arrested two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. The reporters had been working on stories about a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rahkine State that has caused almost 6,50,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The reporters "illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media," said the statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the pair in handcuffs. It said they were detained at a police station on the outskirts of Yangon, the southeast Asian nation's main city. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went missing on the evening of 12 December, after they had been invited to meet police officials over dinner. Attack on Freedom of Press' The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say their exodus from the mainly Buddhist nation was triggered by a military counter-offensive in Rakhine state that the United Nations has branded "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" "We are outraged by this blatant attack on press freedom. We call for authorities to release them immediately," he said. A spokesman for Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed that the two journalists had been arrested. "Not only your reporters, but also the policemen who were involved in that case," spokesman Zaw Htay said. "We will take action against those policemen and also the reporters." In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert emphasized that the agency was "following this closely." She said that US Ambassador Scot Marciel on 13 December had a conversation with two government officials in Myanmar who seemed "genuinely unaware" of the situation. The US embassy in Yangon said in a statement posted on its website on 13 December that it was "deeply concerned by the highly irregular arrests of two Reuters reporters after they were invited to meet with police officials in Yangon last night". "For a democracy to succeed, journalists need to be able to do their jobs freely," the embassy said. "We urge the government to explain these arrests and allow immediate access to the journalists." The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the reporters' immediate and unconditional release. "These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. Britain's Concerns Britain has expressed "grave concerns" to the government of Myanmar over the arrest of the two journalists, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in London on Thursday. And the president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani also called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar said it was "appalled" by the arrests and "gravely concerned" about the state of press freedom in the country. In a statement, it called on the authorities to ensure the safety of the reporters and allow their families to see them.In their appeal arguments made last month, defense lawyers had cited evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime. They told the appeal court the lower court that tried the case had wrongly placed the burden of proof on the defendants. The defense also said prosecutors had failed to prove the reporters gathered and collected secret information, sent information to an enemy of Myanmar or that they had an intention to harm national security. The foreign correspondents' club in neighbouring Thailand said it was "alarmed by the use of this draconian law with its heavy penalties against journalists simply doing their jobs". He has written about military land grabs and the killing of ruling party lawyer Ko Ni in January. This year he jointly won an honorable mention from the Society of Publishers in Asia for Reuters' coverage of the Rakhine crisis in 2016. He previously worked for The Myanmar Times, where he covered Myanmar's historic 2015 elections, and People's Age, a local weekly newspaper, where his editor was Myanmar's current Minister of Information Pe Myint ver the next 24 hours, Reuters colleagues in Yangon filed a missing persons report, went to three police stations, and asked a series of government officials what had happened to the two reporters. They got no official information until Wednesday, 13 December evening. UPDATE: On April 11 2018, a judge in Myanmar ruled that the case against two Reuters reporters who documented a massacre of Rohingya Muslims would proceed on accusations that they violated the Official Secrets Act after they were arrested with papers handed to them by the police. UPDATE: 23 April 2018, The family of a Myanmar policeman who told a court how police planted secret documents on Reuters reporters to "entrap" them was evicted from police housing in the capital Naypyitaw on Saturday, less than 24 hours after his testimony, family members said. Update: On 3 September 2018 the 2 journalists were sentenced to 7 years in prison. Update: On 11 January 2018 the Myanmar court rejected an appeal by Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for their caseIn their appeal arguments made last month, defense lawyers had cited evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime. They told the appeal court the lower court that tried the case had wrongly placed the burden of proof on the defendants. The defense also said prosecutors had failed to prove the reporters gathered and collected secret information, sent information to an enemy of Myanmar or that they had an intention to harm national security.