Journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, also known by the pseudonym Par Gyi, had been arrested while reporting on growing tensions between the regular Burmese army and the Democratic Buddhist Karen Army in southern Mon state. The army suspected Aung Kyaw Naing of being a member of the rebel secessionist movement in Karen state, which borders Mon. False information had been circulating online for several days...
Burma's army shot dead freelance reporter Aung Kyaw Naing while the journalist was in military custody, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the journalist's killing, the first in Burma since 2007. On Thursday last, Burma's army sent a statement to the local Interim Press Council, a quasi-independent media group, that said Naing had been killed on the outskirts...
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Burmese authorities to immediately release a freelance journalist who has been in official custody for nearly a month after covering armed clashes between ethnic rebels and government forces in southeastern Burma. Aung Kyaw Naing, a Burmese freelance journalist based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, was reporting from an area held by the rebel...
Three journalists and two publishers were sentenced on Thursday last to two years in prison on anti-state charges in Burma, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists C(PJ) condemned the harsh verdict and calls for their release on appeal. The Pabedan Township Court in Rangoon ruled that Bi Mon Te Nay reporter Kyaw Zaw Hein, editors Win Tin and Aung Thant, and publishers Yin...
Four journalists with the Burmese weekly Unity, as well as the company’s CEO U Tin Hsan, have had their prison sentences reduced to seven years upon appeal, Mizzima News reported last week. The journalists had been originally sentenced in July to ten years in prison with hard labour by a court in the Magway Region of Myanmar for violating Sec. 3/9 of the country's 1923 Official Secrets Act after...
The Irrawaddy, an independent media group dedicated to Burma news and analysis, has been plagued by threats and cyberattacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Thursday last, hackers referring to themselves as the "Blink Hacker Group" replaced the home page of The Irrawaddy's English-language website with a message accusing it of supporting "jihad & radical Muslims"...
Myanmar’s information minister and presidential advisor, U Ye Htut, told an International Press Institute (IPI) delegation this week that President U Thein Sein will not interfere in the ongoing case of four journalists and a media CEO sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating the 1923 Official Secrets Act. “The president says that as long as they are in court, he cannot intervene,†U Ye...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed a breakthrough in relations between the Myanmar government and its media, following a meeting between Burma’s Interim Press Council and President Thein Sein. The meeting, held at Thein Sein’s presidential ranch, on August 1 was arranged at the request of Myanmar’s Interim Press Council following growing concern over the...
Burmese authorities should drop national security-related charges brought against journalists and staff members of the Bi Mon Te Nay (Bi-Midday Sun) news journal, and release them from pre-trial detention immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. "These bogus security-related charges represent the latest assault on press freedom in Burma," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is distressed at the recent imprisonment of five journalists from the Yangon-based Unity weekly news and current affairs magazine and the arrest and detention of four more journalists from the Bi Mon Te Nay (Midday Sun) newspaper in Myanmar. On July 10 reports said the Pokokku District court had sentenced four journalists and the CEO of Unity to 10...
