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Myanmar editor could face life in jail for interviewing rebel Myanmar blocks hundreds of news sites and threatens editor with life in jail
(about 16 hours later)
Journalist on terrorism charges for report on group fighting military in Rakhine state Fears abuses may go unreported after journalist arrest under terrorism laws for interview with rebel group Arakan Army
A Myanmar journalist could face life in prison for publishing an interview with a rebel group operating in the country’s restive Rakhine state, a week after the insurgents were classified as a terrorist organisation. Myanmar has cracked down on journalists, blocking news websites and maintaining a longstanding internet ban in some areas, prompting warnings it is becoming increasingly hard to monitor abuses in the country.
Nay Myo Lin, editor in chief of the Voice of Myanmar, based in Mandalay, appeared in court on terrorism charges on Tuesday after he ran an interview with a top-ranking Arakan Army (AA) representative on 27 March.. On Tuesday, Myanmar charged a journalist under a terrorism law for publishing an interview with the Arakan Army, a rebel group that demands greater autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine people. The group had recently been labelled a terrorist organisation.
The western region of the country has long been a tinderbox of conflict between the Myanmar military and the AA, a group demanding greater autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine people. Nay Myo Lin, editor in chief of the Voice of Myanmar, could face life in prison. His website has also been blocked, along with other outlets that cover the ongoing fighting in Rakhine state, where about 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled a military crackdown in 2017.
Since January last year scores of civilians have been killed in clashes, hundreds injured, and about 150,000 displaced, with both sides alleging abuse. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch described the charges as absurd. “Quite clearly they are trying to get rid of any lines of reporting that they cannot control,” he said.
Nay Myo Lin’s report was published after the government declared on 23 March that it had classified the the insurgents as a “terrorist group”. The country’s army has repeatedly filed cases against publications that cover the conflict, and only weeks ago dropped a recent criminal complaint it had filed against Reuters news agency.
“I was accused under two charges of the counter-terrorism law,” he told reporters after leaving the court in Mandalay. On top of such legal action, Myanmar has also instructed mobile operators to block 221 websites, claiming they publish fake news and contribute towards instability in the country.
The charges, which cover violations including allowing terrorist groups to spread fear, gather or hide, were filed by the special branch, Myanmar’s intelligence arm, he said. They carry penalties ranging from three years to life in prison. The crackdown on access to information adds to growing fears that communication blocks are making it hard to assess if Myanmar is complying a recent ruling by the international court of justice, which said that the country must implement “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya community in Rakhine state from genocidal acts.
“This is disturbing for press freedom,” said the journalist, who previously worked for the BBC’s Burmese-language news service. “Despite the UN secretary general’s call for a global ceasefire all around the world so that everybody can battle the Covid virus, you have the military in Myanmar doubling down on repressive actions to prevent any sort of independent information coming out of Rakhine state,” added Robertson. “It indicates the Burmese military is certainly not listening to anything the UN secretary general has said.”
His wife, Zarni Mann, a reporter with the independent local news outlet The Irrawaddy, said her husband’s laptop had been seized. She decried the use of counter-terrorism laws against journalists. Myanmar, which reported its first death related to the virus on Tuesday, has registered 14 cases of the coronavirus. Just weeks ago the country had maintained that it was virus free, with one official stating that people’s “lifestyle and diet” protected them from infection.
Myanmar has been criticised in the past for the high-profile jailing of two Reuters journalists, who were convicted in 2018 of breaching a law on state secrets after they revealed a massacre of Rohingya Muslims. The internet-freedom group Access Now, which tracks internet shutdowns worldwide, said that the blackouts first imposed on some townships in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin state in June were now among the most prolonged on record.
They were eventually freed by presidential pardon after more than a year in jail. While violence in the two states has limited people’s ability to move and access services, the internet blackout also “prevents people from getting informed, protecting themselves and their loved ones, and stopping the spread of the virus throughout their communities,” Access Now said in a statement earlier this month.
Myanmar is ranked 138 out of 180 countries for press freedom by the campaign group Reporters Without Borders. Reuters contributed to this report