DVB citizen journalist and reporter Aung San Lin, 44, was recently arrested by Myanmar security forces, simply for reporting the local news. DVB demands his immediate release.

Aung San Lin was at home in Pin Zin village, Wetlet township, Sagaing Region, on midnight, Saturday December 11 when he was arrested.

An agricultural worker before partaking in DVB’s citizen journalist training scheme, Aung San Lin had for four years been a reporter in the area—currently suffering greatly under the military’s ‘Operation Anawrahta’ scorched earth campaign—and was well known to the local community.

DVB has been told that a military informant passed Aung San Lin’s address to the Burmese junta’s security forces.

20 soldiers are said to have surrounded his home and asked whether he was a journalist with DVB before entering, punching him twice, and leading him to Wetlet police station.

On Sunday morning Aung San Lin was taken to a military interrogation center. The military’s torture of detainees in such centers is now well documented; many activists have lost their lives or been irrevocably harmed whilst under interrogation.

DVB demands the immediate release of Aung San Lin and calls upon fellow media and supporters of press freedom around the world to help amplify this call.