The 15-year-old reporter had deleted data from her phone and packed away her guitar as she set out to meet a guerrilla fighter in Myanmar. The tool is primarily a prey, there to disguise her work as a journalist. She deleted the data from her phone to protect her sources in case of arrest.
Salute to the boxer, she took out her lute and strummed an old Burmese tune, “The Sound of the Crane.”
When she felt safe, she began her interview, quickly recording it to a hidden folder on her phone once it was done. “Whenever I go out to report, I always think I might get caught,” said Khaung, who works for the Burmese literary magazine Oway. Like other journalists in Myanmar interviewed for this article, Khaung agreed to be interviewed only if her pseudonym was used, fearing retaliation by the junta.
Myanmar is currently one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. For the first time, it is on track to become the top prison for reporters, surpassing China this year. Fifty-seven reporters are in prison there, according to the Detained Myanmar Journalists Group, an advocacy organization. At least 51 journalists are jailed in China, according to announcements from various human rights groups.
Just two weeks after the military seized power in a coup last year, Myanmar’s military created a new provision in their penal code called Section 505A, making it a crime to publish “scary” comments or spread “false news”. Some of the country’s most famous investigative facilities – including Myanmar Now, DVB, Khit Thit, 7 Days and Mizzima – have had their licenses revoked. Hundreds of journalists fled. The reporters at Oway are now one of the last vestiges of a free press.
Aung Sett, the publication’s 22-year-old editor-in-chief, said on condition that his pseudonym be used.
Aung Sett, a third-year political science student at Yangon University, has been in hiding since the military issued a Section 505 arrest warrant against him. One of his associates, who was in charge of printing Oway, was shot dead by soldiers while protesting the coup.
More than 140 journalists have been arrested since the military came to power, most on charges related to Section 505A. Independent journalists can no longer safely take out their cameras or notebooks. Three reporters were killed by soldiers, including a photojournalist who covered a silent protest in Yangon last December and have tortured to death while in custody.
Last month, the government sentenced Htet Htet Khineone The freelance TV presenter, who worked for the BBC’s charity arm, was sentenced to six years in prison for hard labor, saying her reporting was “illegal incitement and association.” And the crackdown has not been limited to domestic reporters.
Find out the situation in Myanmar
A military court sentenced 26-year-old Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota to 10 years in prison last week. Mr. Kubota faces another trial on Wednesday on charges of breaking immigration laws. Danny Fensteran American journalist who contributed to Myanmar Now, was sentenced to 11 years in prison before being convicted release three days later Bill Richardson, a former US diplomat, helped secure his freedom.
“The military regime has effectively outlawed the independent press in the country,” said Shawn Crispin, senior representative for Southeast Asia at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The media in Myanmar once enjoyed a glory of independence. Thein Sein, Myanmar’s former president, scrapped the censorship law in 2011 as part of a broad program to open up the country and steer it towards democracy. Creative expression flourishes. Dozens of newspapers were opened.
While journalists working under previous military regimes and government critics were forced to go underground, accounts of torture are rare. That changed after the coup. In March 2021, Nathan Maung, editor-in-chief of Kamayut Media, an online publication, and Han Thar Nyein, its co-founder, were among dozens of journalists rounded up by the authorities.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Maung said he was blindfolded and handcuffed for 14 days and beaten in the face and stomach. Later, when they were in the same cell, Mr. Maung said, Mr. Han Thar Nyein told him that the soldiers threatened him with rape after he refused to hand over the password to his phone and that he had to kneel. block of ice for two to three hours before he stopped breathing.
After more than three months in captivity, Mr. Maung, who was born in Myanmar but holds American citizenship, was suddenly released. He has now returned to the United States, while Mr. Han Thar Nyein remains in prison in Myanmar.
“It’s appalling considering the extraordinary progress you’ve seen in the media sector since its opening in 2012. “All of that has been removed,” said Mr. Crispin.
Oway is a biweekly publication that reports on youth and political issues, and offers in-depth features such as profiles of prominent food delivery workers and degrees consumables in the military. Nearly all of its writers are in their 20s and 30s.
The magazine was founded in 1936 by the Yangon University Student Union, a major proponent of the struggle against British colonial domination. One of its editors-in-chief is Aung Sanwho led Myanmar to independence from Britain and is the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained during last year’s coup and was sentenced to 26 years in prison, with more trials underway.
After the coup, Khaung dropped out of school and was inspired to become a journalist after she joined protests and was interviewed by a reporter. Like other writers who contribute to Oway, Khaung said she chose the publication because she knew print could still be distributed in many places. such as Central Sagaing, where the internet has been cut off by the government in an attempt to prevent the spread of information.
“With journalism, I believe I can represent and can be a voice for the voiceless,” she said. “Right now, I want to write about everything I see because everything is not fair in this country.”
One of the people who taught her the basics of journalism was Mratt Kyaw Thu, who honed her skills as a freelance journalist reporting from places like her home state of Rakhine State. of the Rohingya Muslim minority, which is violently persecuted in Myanmar. After the coup, he secured his first interview with a defected army captain. The story goes viral.
Mratt Kyaw Thu fled the country after neighbors alerted him that soldiers had come to his apartment looking for him. After hiding in a border village by the Salween River, and then in a forest, he and a fellow journalist finally made it to Thailand, Germany, and then Spain. In July, the military announced a reward for anyone who revealed information about his whereabouts.
Now, he spends most of his time interacting with other exiled journalists. “I feel a little guilty because most of the time I really want to be in the combat zone,” he said. “Right now, I can’t do much because I’m in Spain, and the only thing I can do is talk to the soldiers on the ground.”
“It’s really not enough,” he said.
