Journalists Phyo and her husband Ko Soe Ya are determined to keep publishing, despite Myanmar’s military forcing the closure of their office, revoking their licence, issuing warrants for their arrest and an underground trek to what they thought was to be a safe border location. Monsoon rains ease as Phyo takes time to reflect on the life-changing events, she and…
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Myanmar’s military leaders used its armed forces to launch its coup and take control of the country from its elected government on February 1, 2021. In protest, millions of people took to the streets. The military responded to these protests by sending armed soldiers and police into residential areas to arrest defiant civilians, workers, students, doctors and nurses. In March,…
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Journalists in Myanmar are being hunted and arrested by the country’s military for trying to do their job. Independent media outlets have been raided, licenses revoked and offices closed. To avoid arrest, independent journalists have gone into deep hiding, taken refuge in ethnic controlled regions or fled to neighboring countries. The military and its paid informers trawl through neighborhoods, coffee…
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*By Phil Thornton The Myanmar army, police and militia’s use of violence against peaceful protestors reached another level on Sunday, February 28. By 5pm, local media reported at least 19 confirmed killings and another 10 unconfirmed. IFJ spoke to journalists covering the nationwide protests. Toe Zaw Latt, a video journalist and production director with Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), is…
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The two Myanmar based Reuters journalists, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, charged under and jailed for breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act were released from prison after spending 500 days behind bars. The two journalists convicted in September 2018 and sentenced to seven years in jail for what human rights group denounced as a set-up. Phil Robertson,…
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Three journalists from the Yangon base Eleven Media Group were arrested today, and could be charged under Section 505(b) and face up to two years in jail. Reuters report that Section 505(b) is a colonial-era law used to stop “publishing information that could cause fear or alarm to the public, cause someone to commit an offense or disrupt public tranquility.”…
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Press freedom in Myanmar took another battering today when the courts used the colonial-era Official Secrets Act to jail two Reuters journalists for seven years. The journalists, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been locked up in the notorious Insein Prison since their arrest in December 2017. The two Reuters reporters were ‘framed’ by police with the…
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Burma’s clampdown on the country’s journalists continues with the arrest of Myanmar Now’s editor, Ko Swe Win by police at Rangoon Airport on Sunday. Ko Swe Win was taken into custody by police while waiting to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand. It is reported by Frontier Magazine that Swe Win’s arrest is linked to a “defamation complaint filed by…
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The international media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded that authorities in Burma should “immediately drop all criminal proceedings against three journalists charged with defamation and should strike all criminal defamation laws from the books” In a statement released on June 19 the CPJ’s, senior Southeast Asia representative, Shawn Crispin, said that “Authorities in Myanmar should throw out…
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The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the Burma government and relevant authorities to “prosecute the perpetrators” of an attack on the owner of the Eleven Media Group. The Burmese media reported that slingshot-wielding assailants attacked Than Htut Aung, the owner of the Eleven Media Group last Tuesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement condemning the attacks. The CPJ…
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