Press freedom continues to decline in Myanmar: journalists

By Admin 03 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
3 May 2023, Sittwe

Press freedom has steadily waned in Myanmar in the two-plus years since the military takeover, journalists said on Wednesday as the country marked its third World Press Freedom Day under military rule.

The Myanmar people have been robbed of their right to reliable information since the coup, which shattered the nation’s media landscape, journalists lamented.

“Press freedom has declined further in Myanmar. And it is true that the regime is responsible for that,” said a veteran journalist who asked for anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

With editors and reporters facing significant risks of being jailed, tortured or murdered, journalism has become an increasingly dangerous profession in Myanmar, which has become one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.

Since the February 2021 coup, 156 journalists have been detained, and four were killed. The regime has revoked the licences of 13 media outlets, and many news agencies have fled to neighbouring Thailand or areas controlled by ethnic armed organisations.

A female journalist based in Arakan State said: “As a woman journalist, I feel more unsafe. I heard women detained in other regions were subjected to sexual abuse.”

In Arakan State, editors and reporters from local media outlets including Development Media Group, Western News, Narinjara, and Border News Agency face prosecution. Several staff have gone into hiding.

“Press freedom is critically important, otherwise people won’t know what is happening around the world,” said DMG spokesman Ko Zaw Zaw.

According to a report issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists in late 2022, Myanmar has become the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, after only China. Burma News International also said in a recent report that military rule poses many challenges to media, especially ethnic media.