Journalism and Media Safety in Myanmar (October-December 2024 and Annual Report 2024)
Summary and trends
This annual report for 2024 covers developments, trends and highlights relating to the safety of Myanmar journalists, as well as the news and media environment under the military regime and in the context of the armed conflict in Myanmar. The first part of the report discusses events and issues in the fourth quarter of 2024, followed by a wider review of the entire year.
Four years after the 1 February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, independent journalism in the country remains an unsafe and life-threatening profession.
Weeks after the coup d’ etat that ousted the country’s elected government, the military regime, called the State Administration Council (SAC), began arresting journalists and news workers. and banning independent news outlets.
After amending a number of laws to widen its powers and use as tools to go after its opponents, the SAC began prosecuting journalists on security-related laws, mainly Section 505A of the Penal Code, which punishes incitement against government officials and the military.Many journalists have since been sentenced to jail terms, with the life sentences thus far given to three journalists who were convicted under various provisions of the Counter-Terrorism Law. These are documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe, Dawei Watch journalist Myo Myint Oo and Mrat Hein Tun, a former journalist from Narinjara and Border News Agency.
Today, the SAC continues to use ‘legal’ weapons to suppress journalism and free speech, instill fear in journalists, their families and the public. Since the coup, it has set up a system of accrediting news organisations and individuals that are its mouthpieces or report favourably on the junta and the military.
While the number of journalists’ arrests has dropped in the last two years, these arrests continue, along with the prosecution and jailing of news professionals for doing their work.In 2024, five journalists were arrested in different parts of the country (compared to 13 in 2023). Two of these five were arrested in the fourth quarter of the year.Ten journalists were convicted in 2024, including one who was convicted in the fourth quarter of the year under the Counter-terrorism Law. In terms of number of convictions, 11 of the 15 convictions through the year were done under this law.A total of three releases in the fourth quarter of 2024 brought to 13 the number of journalists released during the year.
As of end-December 2024, 53 journalists and news professionals remained behind bars. Majority of them are male, and are reporters or photojournalists.Since the coup, 217 journalists and news workers have been arrested, 79 convicted, and 164 released by the junta, according to media monitoring data since the Myanmar coup. Men make up about nine out of 10 arrested journalists and those still in detention.
A total of 11 journalists have died since the 2021 coup, in varying circumstances. One died while in military custody and others while in conflict areas, or were killed during raids on their homes. Five died in 2024, including two whose physical health deteriorated in prison and whose conditions were made worse by lack of adequate care.
Apart from using the ‘law’ and other forms of harassment, SAC troops have also taken to seizing the homes of journalists and editors and their families. Two such incidents occurred in 2024.
Myanmar’s digital environment, where online threats such as doxing continues on platforms like Telegram, also make for a risky setting for journalists. There, pro-military personalities and groups circulate personal information about journalists as well as activists – actions that have escalated into targeted violence against them, arrests of their family members and direct threats against news organisations.
Among the laws that put journalists inside Myanmar at even more risk in 2024 was the SAC’s decision to implement the country’s old conscription law in February – as part of its efforts to increase the troop numbers. While this law that requires at least two years of mandatory military service covers all men aged 18-35 and women from 18 to 27 years of age, journalists are worried not only about being conscripted but being found to be journalists and forced to work for the military regime.
The spread of the armed conflict between the Myanmar military and resistance groups, comprising varied groups of People’s Defence Forces and ethnic armed organisations, has been a major factor affecting news work in Myanmar.
Since late 2023, when the Three Brotherhood Alliance (composed of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army) launched its Operation 1027 in October 2023, more regions in Myanmar have come under the control of anti-junta forces.
This development has been bringing in new conditions that affect the news environment. As ethnic armed organisations take more territory, they have also been moving to exercise control over how journalists operate in their areas, including through registration. In 2024, the news community expressed concern over these, saying that these requirements could undermine press freedom and restrict journalists’ ability to report independently.
Concerns continue about the safety of journalists working inside different regions of the country, those controlled both by the military and ethnic armed groups, as well as restrictions on information access. The year 2024 saw the first incident of an ethnic armed organisation, the Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar, detaining two journalists for nearly a month.
As the fourth anniversary of the coup came around, all of Myanmar’s independent news organisations, along with many independent journalists, are in exile. Most newsrooms in exile are located in northern Thailand, though some are based in border towns of other neighbouring countries like India and Bangladesh.
While exile has brought a degree of physical safety and allows Myanmar media to continue to cover the country, it has brought its own challenges.
Among these are the long-term sustainability of news outlets that depend heavily on foreign grant and development funding and have little market revenue, and journalists’ worries about their ability to rely on news for their livelihoods – all in an uncertain international and donor environment. Journalists in exile face challenges in finding proper documentation to stay on in Thailand.
In exile, Myanmar’s media have also discussed issues like policies within newsrooms in relation to exploitation of journalists and staffers as well as gender-based harassment, which disproportionately affect female media professionals.
In 2024, one more new group, the Myanmar Journalists Club, was formed within the media community. It advocates for better rights for those working in news organisations and for protection against harassment.
Fourth quarter of 2024
Arrests and detention
Two journalists were arrested during October to December 2024.
Eleven Media journalist Pyae Sone was arrested during an inspection of household guest lists in Mandalay on 20 September. He was released on bail a few days later.
A photojournalist who contributes to the British Broadcasting Corp was arrested during this quarter, although when he was detained could not as yet be confirmed. He was held for three or four days and then released, but was charged with violating Section 505A of the Penal Code, which punishes incitement, for writing news and taking photos that appeared on the BBC news and showed few cars on Yangon’s streets due to the country’s fuel shortage amid its economic crisis.
Conviction
Mrat Hein Tun, a former journalist from Narinjara and Border News Agency, was given a life sentence in October 2024 under his conviction under the Counter-terrorism Law. He was charged with violating the law’s Section 50(j) on financing terrorism. Arrested in Hlaing township in Yangon on 31 May, he was tried under a military tribunal because this area remains under martial law.
Releases
Kyaw Swar Tun, a photojournalist, was released from Insein Prison on 14 November 2024 after completing his three-year jail sentence for Section 505A of the Penal Code.
Also released were the two other journalists detained for a few days in the fourth quarter of 2024 – Eleven Media’s Pyae Sona and the photojournalist-contributor to the BBC.
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