Myanmar frees Reuters journalists after World Press Freedom Day honors Friday

 Thursday we wrote about the pall surrounding the top honors unveiled for two Reuters journalists at the World Press Freedom Day Conference in Ethiopia—they were jailed serving seven years in Myanmar for doing their jobs.

Tonight, just four days later, we got the news that worldwide pressure had freed them. They’ll get those awards in person soon after all because the press—and the people of the world—used their freedom of speech to demand justice.

The New York Times did a wonderful job of telling the story just minutes ago, and we happily share it. CLICK TO READ

It just shows what we preach every week—our First Amendment is only as strong as those who defend it in Americas and do the same work for the same rights in the rest of the world.

This case proved it, and the World Press Freedom Day Conference can now become a true World Press Freedom Celebration. Our headline question from last week now has a joyful answer—its time for a GALA!

This blog post was edited May 16, 2024 to remove materials that were originally shared as fair use but had copyright concerns raised by a third party.