MYANMAR POLICE CHARGE REUTERS REPORTERS

YANGON: Myanmar Police charge Reuters reporters under Official Secrets Act.

Two Reuters journalists were formally charged by police in a Myanmar court Wednesday with breaching  a colonial era secrecy law that carries up to 14 years in jail, provoking a barrage of calls for their immediate release.

Myanmar nations Wa Lone, 31 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27 were arrested a month ago under the Official Secrets At after they were allegedly given classified documents by two policemen over dinner.

The pair had been reporting on the military campaign in the northern state of Rakhine that has forced some 655,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee over the border to Bangladesh since August.

The UN and US have condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing.

The issue is incendiary inside Myanmar, where authorities deny wrongdoing and say the army was cracking down on militants from the Muslim minority.

There were emotional scenes in the Yangon courthouse, with family members in tears and the reporters making desperate pleas before being led back into detention after they were denied bail.

Their families have suggested that the pair were set up, saying the arrests took place immediately after leaving the restaurant where they dined with two policemen.

The case against the Reuters journalists has shocked Myanmar's embattled press corps.

Reporters covering Wednesday's proceedings wore black in protest against their arrest and carried banners proclaiming ''Journalism is not a crime.''

''We view this as a wholly unwarranted, blatant attack on press freedom,'' said Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler

The US Embassy in Myanmar lead reaction to the court decision, expressing disappointment and calling for the ''immediate release'' of the reporters.

''For democracy to succeed and flourish, journalists must be able to do their jobs,'' the embassy statement said.

The World Students Society is watching the events in Myanmar with utmost concern.