Observers say the unexpected release of the two Reuters reporters was a political decision timed to save face for the country's civilian leader, after a vigorous international campaign that saw Amal Clooney join their legal team.
The wish was couched in Wa Lone’s assertion that “I am a journalist and I am going to continue to be.”
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were sentenced to seven years in jail in September 2018 under the Official Secrets Act, were released after a presidential amnesty
Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: "We are enormously pleased that Myanmar has released our courageous reporters".
Locked up since 2017, the journalists, who received this year's Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, were freed on Tuesday morning after they received a presidential pardon earlier this week
On September 3, a court in Yangon declared the journalists guilty and sentenced them to seven years each in prison
