Quite the cruellest irony has befallen two intrepid Reuters journalists in Myanmar. The Supreme Court in Yangon has played to the gallery of the junta ~ and at a pinch, the diplomatically evasive Aung San Suu Kyi as well ~ by rejecting the final appeal of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

A sense of acute desperation alone explains the petition that they had filed against their seven-year prison term over their reporting on the Rohingya crisis. The sentence in itself was deeply controversial, verily a travesty of professional certitudes.

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For the country’s apex court to rule that the two had violated the Official Secrets Act is to proceed from conclusion to premise. Viewed through the democratic prism, the charge holds no water. Of a thorough investigation there was little; of a proper judicial hearing even less.

That impression is reinforced with visuals of the two reporters handcuffed ~ both hands of Kyaw ~ in court. By implication, Myanmar’s judiciary has signalled the message that to report on what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing since World War II is an offence against the State in the perception of the omnipotent junta.

If there is an event in Asia that cries out for incisive coverage, it is this. Both are literally feet on the ground reporters, who are not given to garnering news from television channels. Only this month, they were awarded the Pulitzer prize for international reporting for their investigation into the Rohingya crisis.

The upholding of the seven-year jail term has turned out to be the comeuppance of the two doughty professionals, who were determined to inform the world about the persecution of the Rohingya. The development has been direly disheartening for journalists around the world, with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) saying the authorities had “criminalised independent journalism”.

The wording of the Supreme Court sentence has been wholly inadequate, almost perfunctory ~ “The Supreme Court upholds the conviction made by the previous court,” was the terse observation of the judge.

In consequence, the two will have to serve out the original seven-year sentence handed to them last September. The initial ruling had sparked widespread condemnation; the US Vice-President, Mike Pence, had even asked Suu Kyi to intervene.

But calls for their release have been ignored in Myanmar, with Suu Kyi saying that the case has “nothing to do with freedom of expression and that they were jailed because they broke the law”. The contrived spin by the perceived lodestar of democracy must have pleased the junta.

No details were advanced this time, and there is much that is under the hat. The ruling comes as a devastating blow. Myanmar has lost its credibility yet again and it shall not be easy to remove the stain. Democracy has been trashed under Aung San Suu Kyi.