VOA Burmese's research data indicate there are still about 40 journalists locked up in prisons across Myanmar, even after this week’s mass pardon of thousands of prisoners by the military junta.
On Wednesday, about 10 journalists were among the 2,153 political prisoners released to celebrate Buddha Day, also known as Kasone Full Moon Day. A statement from the junta said it was done "on humanitarian grounds.”
The statement said the freed prisoners were serving time for breaking section 505(a) of the penal code, which makes it illegal to “propagate fake news or statements that incite public disorder or fear.”
Many people arrested following the military coup in February 2021 faced this charge, which carried a maximum sentence of three years in jail.
Freelance journalist Ah Hla Lay Thuzar told VOA by phone the junta appears to be releasing people with less than a year left on their sentences. “The junta is trying to repair its reputation as a major human rights abuser by releasing prisoners,” she said.
Thuzar was released from Insein prison in early January after serving 16 months for “inciting national unrest” under Section 505(a). She was arrested while covering protests in the capital, Yangon, in September 2021.
After her release, she said, she lived in fear.
“I was afraid that the junta could put me in jail again at any time. There is no law there. Fear of being caught again won out. I can see that those who have now been set free also feel this way,” Thuzar told VOA. She fled to the Thai-Myanmar border after being released from prison.
Challenges of reporting under military rule
The journalists still being held in Myanmar prisons, according to VOA Burmese's research data, include VOA Burmese contributor Sithu Aung Myint.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the junta, his daughter told VOA. Sithu Aung Myint contributed fact-based news analysis to a VOA Burmese weekly program from 2014 until his arrest in August 2021.
Since the coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, the military has cracked down on the media to muzzle journalists and limit people's access to information.
According to its report released earlier this year, journalists in Myanmar face death threats and have been compelled to abandon the country because of their work. Arrests and interrogation are other forms of harassment that journalists commonly face.
As reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Myanmar has risen to the position of third-worst nation for imprisoning journalists, after Iran and China. According to the International Press Institute's (IPI) Database of Killed Journalists, four journalists have been slain in Myanmar since February 2021; all were likely killed by the junta.
Despite the criticism, the military junta maintains the international press has been allowed to report freely in Myanmar. Danny Fenster, an American journalist imprisoned in Myanmar for six months in 2021, however, said his arrest was likely meant to frighten other journalists away. At the time, he was managing editor of the English-language news magazine Frontier Myanmar.
"They had, I think, found that they could send a statement to international journalists — 'Don't come here, don’t pay attention to this,’" Fenster remarked at Washington Post-sponsored Press Freedom Day event in Washington on Wednesday.
Swe Win, editor-in-chief of the Myanmar Now news agency, told VOA in a Zoom interview for World Press Freedom Day coverage that "not being able to access news sources freely" was one of the major challenges journalists faced under the junta. Shortly after the coup, the junta cracked down on independent media outlets, forcing Myanmar Now and other independent media to relocate their activities outside the country.
He added, “There are a lot of off-limits spots. Some regions were completely destroyed by the fighting. No one is allowed to openly pose questions,” but "our correspondents in the field are surprisingly resilient.”
“There are those who are making contact with locals in Myanmar from outside the country for the purposes of reporting. Our commitment to journalistic integrity is equally robust,” said Swe Win.
Unity among journalists
Myanmar’s coup came nearly 10 years after a period of more political openness, and in those years the country’s media underwent rapid growth.
In the years before the coup, a wide variety of private and publicly funded media organizations grew and connected with audiences, which had an impact on the country, Swe Win said.
“The advantages of the internet era have allowed Burmese [Myanmar] people of all ages to see the dangers posed by the military rule," he said.
American journalist Nathan Maung worked as a journalist in Myanmar under both the semicivilian regime of former General Thein Sein (2010–15) as well as the National League for Democracy (NLD) government led by Aung San Suu Kyi (2015-20). During that time, he said, Myanmar’s news outlets rapidly multiplied.
“One bright spot is the expansion of local, grassroots news sources," Maung told VOA, noting that while local media had risen in significance, "so has the focus of investigating by national media.”
He said those news organizations were more divided over how to cover the country’s Rohingya crisis in years past, but the 2020 coup led to more unity among journalists.
“The Voice of America and the other major foreign-based media outlets covered the genocide committed by the Myanmar army against Rohingya minority openly and correctly, but most of the local media outlets refused to accept this," he said. "[The] coup altered that gap. We suddenly agreed. All of Myanmar's independent media outlets saw the same atrocities and war crimes committed against the Rohingya and came to the same conclusion.”
Maung, who was the executive producer of Kamaryut Online News Media, founded in 2012, was arrested by the military junta in March 2021, released from prison in June and deported to the United States after the charges against him were dropped.
International support for media
For Sonny Swe, CEO of Frontier Myanmar, the obligation of the international community to help Myanmar's independent media is critical "in light of the recent military coup and the COVID-19 outbreak."
"The international community can support us by providing financial assistance, technical support, advocacy, solidarity and recognition," but "the international support has been limited and insufficient, and more urgent and coordinated action is needed," Swe said in a statement to VOA.
Swe Win of Myanmar Now said, "We fear the media may not survive the next five to 10 years, since its future is unknown and there is a cap on international aid. We need strong and effective support."
