AFP
Nearly half of the 87 journalists arrested by Myanmar’s junta in the five months since its staged a coup on Feb. 1 remain in detention, mostly on charges of defamation, prompting their colleagues, family members, and media watchdogs to call for their immediate release Thursday.
According to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service, 31 reporters were released prior to June 30 when the junta declared a general amnesty and freed 2,300 prisoners from the country’s jails, including another 14 journalists. The Ayeyarwaddy Times’ Maubin correspondent Aung Mya Than one of the 14 freed in the amnesty was rearrested on July 10, leaving a total of 43 domestic and international reporters currently in detention.
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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.