As protests grow in Myanmar, so do crackdowns on the press
From 1962 through 2011, a military junta ruled Myanmar. During that time, independent media reported in exile from neighboring countries or went undercover. The military imposed strict censorship, kept the price of sim cards prohibitively high, and isolated the southeast Asian country from the world.
When the democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in early 2016, it loosened some of its harshest restrictions on the press. But less than a year into its term, its relations with the press deteriorated. The government began suing and arresting journalists, and it blocked access to parts of the country where the military was committing widespread human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities.
Myanmar’s military is cracking down on dissent over the Feb. 1 coup there, arresting hundreds of protesters and journalists, including one from The Associated Press. The AP’s Thein Zaw was detained alongside Ye Myo Khant, a photojournalist from the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency in the city of Yangon Saturday. Both were covering a protest at Hledan…
Journalists Detained as Myanmar Military Intensifies Crackdown pakistantelegraph.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pakistantelegraph.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
RFA
Journalists covering mass street protests against Myanmar’s military junta are increasingly reporting threats, arrests and harassment from authorities tightening a crackdown on opponents of the Feb. 1 coup in what a local press watchdog called an attempted “news blackout.”
In a spate of incidents this week witnessed by or described to RFA reporters, Myanmar journalists reported being kicked and shot at with slingshots while also facing threats or attempts arrest them, even when identifying themselves as media.
On Wednesday foreign correspondents’ clubs (FCC) in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines released a joint statement saying they are “deeply concerned by harassment and intimidation of the media in Myanmar following the Feb. 1 coup.”
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