News
Far-Reaching Threats a Worry for Cambodian-American Journalist
WASHINGTON — Paranoia has become something of a way of life for Sarada Taing, ever since the journalist received violent threats from a pro-government social media personality in Cambodia in June. In one audio message sent via Facebook Messenger on June 19, Pheng Vannak, a former police ...
Liam Scott
Myanmar: Freed filmmaker Toru Kubota returns to Japan
Toru Kubota landed in Japan Friday morning after he was freed from prison and deported by Myanmar’s junta on Thursday. The 26-year-old filmmaker and video journalist arrived in Tokyo on a scheduled flight from Yangon via Bangkok. Kubota said upon landing that he wanted to express his gratitude ...
Martin Fritz Tokyo
Myanmar junta bans Irrawaddy news agency after months of harassment
Myanmar’s junta has officially banned online news outlet The Irrawaddy and charged the outlet’s registered publisher for violating national security laws, state media reported over the weekend, following months of legal harassment. The ban is the latest on at least 20 media groups – news agencies, ...
RFA Burmese
Mekong News Agency journalist Maung Maung Myo jailed on terrorism charges in Myanmar
Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Maung Maung Myo and stop jailing members of the press for reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Around 6 p.m. on May 10, Maung Myo, a contributor to the local Mekong News Agency, was traveling ...
CPJ
Future Remains Cloudy for Exiled Myanmar Journalists in Thailand
It has been more than a year since Myanmar’s military seized power in a putsch that sent thousands fleeing the country. Among them were scores of media professionals who took up refuge here in Thailand. Some have since moved on or resettled elsewhere, but others stayed ...
Teeranai Charuvastra
Freelance reporter Soe Yarzar Tun faces up to 7 years in prison under anti-terror law
A court in Insein Prison last week indicted freelance journalist Soe Yarzar Tun under Section 52a of the Counter-Terrorism Law, which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years, lawyers have told Myanmar Now. The reporter was detained in Bago Region’s Thone Sel Township on ...
Aung Naing
Journalist Taken to Court Over Report on Illegal Timber Factory
A video report alleging a Battambang timber factory was illegally processing luxury wood has landed a local journalist in court. Lim Phally, a reporter for Los Seng News, said he had asked for a delay for court questioning that was scheduled today. He was sued after a ...
Khut Sokun
Editor Than Htike Aung detained for more than 160 days
It is now the 165th day that Than Htike Aung, a former editor of Mizzima was arrested by the military council. Than Htike Aung and BBC journalist Aung Thura were arrested by military intelligence while attending the trial of NLD Patron Win Htein in Naypyidaw’s Dakkhin ...
Mizzima
Press freedom more important than ever in the Asia–Pacific
The current Covid-19 pandemic has had an alarming impact on press freedom. Over the past 18 months, governments across the Asia–Pacific have – knowingly or not – used the health crisis to restrict the flow of information, stifling the press freedom that underpins societies and ...
OLIVIA PIRIE-GRIFFITHS
Arrest of journalists a litmus test for how Thailand treats those fleeing persecution in Myanmar
Three senior reporters who fled Myanmar for Thailand after the brutal military coup “face certain arrest and persecution” if they are deported following their arrest in Chiang Mai on Sunday, journalist groups say. The three are prominent journalists with the independent Burmese news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and were detained in ...
Helen Regan and Kocha Olarn,