Myanmar’s Journalist Win Tin freed after 19 years

One of them is U Win Tin, a prominent journalist and activist, who has spent at least 19 years in jail.

The amnesty was reportedly granted so the prisoners can take part in elections planned for 2010.

The UN has urged Burma to release all political prisoners as part of the country’s seven-step "roadmap to democracy".

Human rights groups say that there are about 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 19 years under house arrest.