A Sittwe Township court sentenced Htet Aung, a journalist working for the Development Media Group (DMG), and its office staff Soe Win Aung to five years in prison under the Counter-Terrorism law on June 28.
“They were charged in relation to a news report titled Muslims are calling for action against genocide,” a lawyer told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
Htet Aung was arrested in Sittwe while reporting on a Buddhist cultural festival last October. The DMG office was later raided and its staff, Soe Win Aung, was arrested.
DMG called on “international organizations and states to pressure the military council to release all reporters.” The regime has issued arrest warrants for 18 DMG staff, including its Editor-in-Chief Aung Marm Oo.
The International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL) has documented that 208 journalists have been arrested since the 2021 military coup. Fifty-six of them are currently in prison and 78 have already been sentenced to prison terms.
Myanmar is ranked 171 out of 180, near the bottom, in the Reporters Without Borders 2024 World Press Freedom Index. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks it as the world’s biggest jailer of journalists after China.
