On World Press Freedom Day, Myanmar journalists continue their struggle to survive

Three years after the coup in Myanmar, the country’s journalists are marking yet another World Press Freedom Day with no end in sight to their struggle just to survive. As of March of this year, a total of 208 Myanmar journalists have been imprisoned for doing their jobs, according to Athan, a local media monitoring group. Of these, eight have died in detention. Many others have been forced to flee the country, go into hiding, or leave their profession altogether to avoid facing arrest by a junta that sees journalists as a threat to its rule. Myanmar Now spoke to several journalists recently about how the hostile environment created by one of the world’s most repressive regimes has impacted them. Tortured for being a journalist Ma Thuzar Senior journalist Ma Thuzar, 38, spent 16 months inside Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison after being charged with incitement for covering protests that broke out soon after the military takeover. The charge, under Section 505a of the Penal Code, is routinely used against activists, but has also been deployed by the junta as a means of silencing journalists. “I was arrested while I was doing my job,” she said, speaking to Myanmar Now in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, opposite the town of Myawaddy in Karen State. Despite identifying herself as a journalist, she was repeatedly beaten by her jailers as part of their interrogation. “I told them I was a journalist, but they still beat me up anyway. Even after they realised I really was a journalist, they didn’t stop the torture,” she said. “They flogged me with a bamboo stick until my thighs were swollen and hit me on the back with a baton, knowing that I was a journalist.” This continued for a month, as it became increasingly clear that not only did the authorities know that she was a journalist, but that this was precisely why they were targeting her. She recalls how one day—it happened to be her 35th birthday—her tormentors suddenly hit her with a barrage of questions about journalists who had fled to Thailand. They wanted to know who was supporting them, and how many of the journalists that she knew were still in the country. Because she didn’t reveal anything to them, they resorted to psychological torture, threatening to arrest her daughter so they could beat Thuzar in front of her. “That made me feel terrible, because in the cell next to mine there was a kid who cried all through the night. I was tortured by the thought that they would also throw my daughter in prison,” she said. When she was finally released, the prison authorities told her they only treated her the way they did because they thought she was a protester—a lie that only deepened the pain she felt whenever she recalled her time behind bars. “It was a huge trauma. But I am glad that I am reunited with my daughter now,” she said. Forced into hiding Aung Mya Than Aung Mya Than, 52, was also jailed and tortured for reporting on the anti-coup protests and the junta’s subsequent crackdown. The native of Ayeyarwady Region had worked as a journalist for 15 years, reporting for various outlets including, most recently, the Ayeyarwady Times. Even when he was busy running his family’s businesses, he continued to pursue his passion for reporting by contributing information as a citizen journalist. He said a local official warned him that he was about to be arrested and suggested that he turn himself in. He exploded in anger at this, saying he would never cooperate with the regime or let it take him into custody. But rather than flee the area completely, he went into hiding in his hometown so that he could remain close to his wife and 7-year-old son. “It was difficult to immediately relocate because I have a family, so I just went from one safe house to another in town,” he said, adding that he knew he was taking a great risk by trying to stay near his family. Eventually, the regime caught up with him. As a fugitive, he was subjected to brutal beatings at the hands of his captors. “They tied my hands behind my back and slapped me hard in the face and mouth. They stepped on my shins and ground their feet down on them. They also hit me in the head and ears with both hands,” he said. The interrogation room where all this took place was dark and tiny, and had a table covered with blood, he recalled. Now suffering from poor health and memory loss due to his mistreatment, he said he doesn’t remember the exact day and month that he was arrested. But he said he would never forget what they did to him in that room. “It was an inhuman torture, not an investigation,” he said. Now freed from his cell but unable to return to his home because it has been sealed off by the regime, Aung Mya Than is also living in Mae Sot, where he faces different challenges. “I’m working for some media outlets and trying to get by on the money that they pay, but it’s hard,” he said. ‘Forget who you are’ Htet Khaung Lin Htet Khaung Lin, another exiled journalist who works as a freelancer and also shares political analysis and hosts a talk show on social media, agrees that it is a precarious way to make a living. “As a freelancer, I don’t have a regular income. I have to rely largely on contributions from my friends in the US and Australia,” he said. As difficult as his current circumstances are, however, he says the situation inside Myanmar is far worse. “The only people who can work inside the country are the pro-military media,” he said. “You can’t expect media freedom from the military. They’re afraid of anyone who truthfully reports on what they’re doing. That’s why they are oppressing the media. So there is no press freedom, none at all.” Another journalist based in one of Myanmar’s “liberated areas” controlled by an ethnic armed group said that the military regards any journalist who is not overtly pro-junta as “the enemy.” “You can be arrested anywhere and at any time,” he said. To survive as a journalist in Myanmar, he said, you have to forget who you are. “To live under this regime, I must forget that I am a journalist and be ready to come up with some story about what I do for a living if I’m asked,” he said. But even in parts of the country not controlled by the junta, journalists must be careful about identifying themselves as such. Recently, he explained, two armed groups issued directives to journalists about what they could and couldn’t do in their territory. The move had an immediate chilling effect on reporters operating in these areas. “That’s why I don’t go out at night at all now,” he said. The crime of telling the truth Sai Zaw Thaike Meanwhile, many journalists still languish in Myanmar’s prisons. Sai Zaw Thaike, a photojournalist who was working for Myanmar Now when he was arrested nearly a year ago, is currently serving a sentence of 20 years with hard labour after being found guilty of sedition and multiple other charges. Like many other journalists persecuted by the regime, Sai Zaw Thaike’s real crime was simply telling the truth. At the time of his arrest in the Rakhine State capital Sittwe, he was reporting on the impact of Cyclone Mocha, a deadly tropical storm that killed more than 140 people, most of them members of the persecuted Rohingya minority living in camps for internally displaced persons. “His sentencing is yet another indication that freedom of the press has been completely quashed under the military junta’s rule, and shows the hefty price independent journalists in Myanmar must pay for their professional work,” Myanmar Now editor-in-chief Swe Win said in a statement released when Sai Zaw Thaike’s sentence was handed down last September. Now being held in Insein Prison, he is among hundreds of journalists worldwide who are being punished for challenging the narratives of dictators and others who believe that the truth must bend to the will of the powerful. As we mark World Press Freedom Day, we remember our colleagues around the world who are reminders of the true cost of real journalism—journalism that serves the interests of the people, and not just those who rule.

On World Press Freedom Day, Myanmar journalists continue their struggle to survive

In a country that is among the world's worst for press freedom, many remain committed to speaking truth to power

Subscribe for full access

How the global fuel crisis is upending Myanmar’s rice supply chain

No way out: Junta airstrike leaves prisoners burned alive in AA camp

Killing their own: How Myanmar’s military targets those left behind

The costly resistance operation that saved hundreds of civilian hostages

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Junta assaults displace thousands during Myanmar’s Thingyan New Year’s festival

Myanmar dictator names members of new ‘super council’

Myanmar junta leader sworn in as self-appointed president

Insein Prison authorities deny medical treatment to seriously ill Myanmar Now journalist