As a cyclone rolled over the Bay of Bengal on 24 May, American journalist Danny Fenster, 37, contemplated the brooding skies near a terminal window at Yangon international airport. For a while, the threat of foreigners being seized at the airport by Myanmar’s military was real, but after watching international reporters exit the country safely in April, the Michigan native was more worried about turbulence. He had arrived in Myanmar two years.
PEC demands unconditional release of all scribes in Myanmar
06 Jun 2021, 21:27 GMT+10
Geneva/Guwahati: As the imprisonment of scribes and other democratic activists under arbitrary laws becomes a new normal in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), the Switzerland-based media rights body Press Emblem Campaign (https://pressemblem.ch/) urges the military regime in NayPieTaw to release all media workers unreservedly.
The military junta led by General Min Aung Hlaing is presently trying its best to control the public outrages since the south-east Asian nation faced the coup on 1 February throwing the elected government virtually led by Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi out of legitimate power. The civil disobedient movement, called by NLD chief Suu Kyi, has already lost over 840 demonstrators to the brutalities of security personnel.
The military court of Myanmar has sentenced Aung Kyaw, a reporter from the Democratic Voice of Burma, and Ko Zaw Zaw, a freelance reporter with Mizzima News, under a colonial-era law. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the junta’s use of Section 505(a) of the Penal Code for this breach of press freedom and violation of human rights.
Global Journalism community criticizes Myanmar
05 Jun 2021, 02:56 GMT+10
Naypyitaw [Myanmar] June 4 (ANI/Sputnik): The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Friday accused the Myanmar military of jailing two journalists on trumped-up charges and demanded their release.
Aung Kyaw, a reporter from the Democratic Voice of Burma, and Ko Zaw Zaw, a freelance reporter with Mizzima News, were sentenced to two years in prison under a newly revised colonial-era law that criminalizes the spread of misinformation that could abet mutiny. Sentencing journalists to jail because of a claim they are spreading false news is a gratuitous condemnation of free speech and free media, the federation said.