Activists, Journalists Included in Myanmar Prisoner Release

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Grant Peck

July 01, 2021

The military gave no reason for the sudden release of prisoners, which included many detained since its February coup.

Myanmar’s government began releasing about 2,300 prisoners on Wednesday, including activists who were detained for protesting against the military’s seizure of power in February and journalists who reported on the protests, officials said.

Buses took prisoners out of Yangon’s Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases. It is standard practice to take freed prisoners to the police stations where they were originally booked to complete the processing for their freedom.

Myanmar Soldiers, Aiming to Silence Protests, Target Journalists

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Richard C. Paddock
April 2, 2021

Covering a protest battle in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.Credit...The New York Times

Ten days after seizing power in Myanmar, the generals issued their first command to journalists: Stop using the words “coup,” “regime” and “junta” to describe the military’s takeover of the government. Few reporters heeded the Orwellian directive, and the junta embraced a new goal — crushing all free expression.

Since then, the regime has arrested at least 56 journalists, outlawed online news outlets known for hard-edge reporting and crippled communications by cutting off mobile data service. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.

Journalist killings, arrests and assaults climb worldwide as authoritarianism spreads

ASIAN CORRESPONDENT
June 01-2019

Burma, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom.

The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence and created “an intense climate of fear” worldwide.

Bill Richardson says Aung San Suu Kyi 'doesn't deserve credit' for releasing two jailed journalists

PRI
May 13, 2019 · 

By The World staff

 Former UN Ambassador and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Credit: Gus Ruelas/Reuters 

Today in Myanmar, two Reuters journalists are enjoying time with their families days after their release from prison. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo served more than 500 days in jail after they were arrested for violating the country's Official Secrets Act when they uncovered details around the killings of 10 Rohingya men and boys.

Security-tech companies once flocked to Myanmar. One firm’s tools were used against two journalists.

The Washinton Post

By Timothy McLaughlin

May 4 at 9:16 AM

Detained Myanmar journalist Wa Lone speaks to reporters in July as he is escorted from a court hearing by police in Yangon. (Myo Kyaw Soe/AFP/Getty Images)

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar police had two Reuters journalists behind bars, but they wanted more.

The reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were lured into a meeting with police in December 2017 and arrested on claims of violating state secrecy laws as they reported on atrocities against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

Myanmar top court rejects Reuters journalists' appeal

B B C
23 April 2019

 Myanmar's top court has rejected an appeal by two Reuters journalists jailed on charges linked to their reports on the Rohingya.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years last September in a case condemned around the world.

Myanmar Supreme Court Agrees to Rule on Reuters Journalists' Appeal

RADIO FREE ASIA  
2019-03-26

Khin Maung Zaw, a Myanmar attorney representing jailed Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, speaks to the media outside the Supreme Court in Naypyidaw, Feb. 1, 2019. AFP

Myanmar’s Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to rule on an appeal filed by lawyers representing two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in jail for violating the country’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act while they reported on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims during a brutal military-led crackdown in Rakhine state.

Indian journalist receives death threats for saving Kashmiri students

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE

By News Desk
Published: March 13, 2019

Sagrika Kissu helped arrange lodging, transport for 18 students.PHOTO COURTESY: HUFFINGTON POST 

 

 

A 26-year-old Indian journalist has been at the receiving end of death threats from hard-line groups in the country for helping save Kashmiri students post Pulwana attack.

Myanmar's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi could release 2 jailed journalists. She has not.

 

By Shibani Mahtani February 4 at 5:00 AM

Vice President Pence and Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi confer on the sidelines of the 33rd meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore in November. When Pence pushed for the pardon of two journalists accused of violating a colonial-era law on state secrets, Suu Kyi rebuffed him. The pair had been working on the investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya men during an army crackdown in 2017. (Bernat Armangue/AFP/Getty Images)

When Vice President Pence met with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi at a major Asian summit in Singapore last November, they found themselves at odds over one issue in particular: the case of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar for investigating suspected atrocities.

Myanmar freedom of expression getting worse 'day by day', report finds

Aung San Suu Kyi criticised for failing to halt jailing of Reuters reporters Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone

Myanmar state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to act on repressive regime for journalists, Human Rights Watch said. Photograph: Hein Htet/EPA

  The Guardian
Leonie Kijewski
Fri 1 Feb 2019

Myanmar’s freedom of expression has deteriorated under its new government, a new Human Rights Watch report has said.

It cited the jailing of Reuters reporters Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, who were investigating the Rohingya crisis, saying the case “shows the military’s willingness to penalise reporters who seek information the military would rather keep hidden”.