State-owned Myanmar Radio and Television and five content providers including DVB signed an agreement over the weekend to broadcast via digital free-to-air TV channels, in a landmark first for Burma’s media landscape.

A longtime former Reuters correspondent has been appointed as Burma’s deputy information minister in an awkwardly timed career move, given that two of the international news agency’s Burmese reporters are currently on trial for what their boss has called “a blatant attack on press freedom.”

One week since they went missing, two Reuters reporters detained by Burmese authorities are being treated well and in good health, according to a senior government spokesman, who nonetheless declined to provide information on where the two men are being held.

Swe Win was remanded in custody and escorted to Mandalay, where Maha Aung Myay court agreed to release him until his trial begins on 7 August.

Over 20 human rights organisations issue a call to the international community, urging world leaders to pressure the Burmese government into cooperating with a United Nations fact-finding mission on alleged human rights violations in Arakan State and elsewhere in the country.

The Ministry of Information says the winners of five new content provider licences granting the recipients digital free-to-air television channels under the state-owned broadcaster MRTV will be announced at the end of this month.