Violation of Media Freedom in August 2024
As the number of journalist deceased cases rose to its peak since the coup, the month of August 2024 should pay close attention to the situation of the media and the safety of journalists, citizen journalists, and individuals who are working in the media industry. Notely, we have documented the cases of two journalists who were shot to death and the death of a documentary filmmaker dying from cancer as a consequence of limited and/or poor medical treatment while he was locked behind the military prison.
Deceased in August
Two freelance journalists, Htet Myat Thu and Win Htut Oo, were shot to death by military soldiers in a home raid in Kyaikto, Mon state, on August 21. According to a news source from RFA Burmese, journalist Htet Myat Thu, whose house was reported by an informer for having been visited by members of people’s defence forces (PDF), was arrested once and charged with Section 505A of the Penal Code in 2022.
The military proxy social media channels accused Htet Myat Thu and Win Htut Oo of being affiliated with Kyaikto Revolutionary Forces (KRF). In response, the editor-in-chief of the Nation Voice denied the accusation, stating the two were only working as journalists.
The death of an Award-Winning documentary filmmaker
Just three days after his release from the infamous Insein Prison, Pe Maung Same, a Burmese documentary filmmaker, died at the private Sakura Hospital in Yangon while getting treatment for torture that he suffered from military interrogation and has been diagnosed with tuberculosis over the period of two years since his arrest. A report from the Guardian stated that Pe Maung Same has endured “hours of beatings at an interrogation centre [that] had left him with five broken ribs and four prolapsed discs, which were untreated for almost two years in jail.” He was arrested on March 28 2022, accused of associating with Karanni National Defence Force (KNDF) and convictedunder the lawsuit of Section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Association Act to three-year prisons.
| Year | Male | Female | Total |
| 2021 | 2 | – | 2 |
| 2022 | 1 | – | 1 |
| 2023 | 3 | – | 3 |
| 2024 | 5 | – | 5 |
The Figure above indicates the deaths of journalists since the military attempted coup in 2021. Since the coup, there have been the deaths of 11 journalists and filmmakers, all male, and five of them killed and died this year, which should seriously be concerned for the safety and survival of the media industry and journalists in Myanmar.
Deceased cases of two other journalists in 2024
Nay Lin Htike, a journalist from DVB, died in prison from oral cancer on 29 July 2024. He was transferred from Daik-U prison to Insein prison for better treatment in July 2022, when the spread of his cancer worsened to stage four. According to Myanmar Now, he was arrested in early February 2022, and the military-controlled court convicted him under Section 505A of the Penal Code and Section 52(a) of the Counter Terrorism Act and a lawsuit under the Natural Disaster Management law. DVB reported that he was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Myanmar Now stated his imprisonment was nine and a half years. However, a report from RFA indicates that poor medical treatment and lack of health care in prison have caused the death of a journalist.
Phoe Thiha, also known as Myat Thu Tun, a former journalist, was shot to death by the military soldiers in the station of (378) military custody located in the Western Rakine’s Mrauk-U township. Despite his retirement from the journalism field five years ago, without having a specific reason or accusation, he was arrested on 20 September 2022 at his home in Mrauk-U, and the soldiers ransacked the house. After one year, four months, and ten days, he was shot to death along with eight other political prisoners in Rakhine State.
Monitoring Media Repression in Myanmar
| Journalists and media workers | August 2024 | Female | Male | Total since the 2021 attempted coup to as of August 2024) |
| Arrested | 26 | 185 | 211 | |
| In detention/serving jail sentences | 4 | 51 | 55 | |
| Released | 1* | 22 | 133 | 155 |
| Died | 3* | – | 11 | 11 |
| Convicted | 12 | 64 | 76* | |
| Warranted | 8 | 48 | 56 | |
| News and other licenses | ||||
| News licenses cancelled | 15 | |||
| Printing/publishing permits revoked | 11 | |||
* Note: We updated the categories of “Resealed” and “Died” by adding one number to each, referring to the case of Pe Maung Same, who died three days after his release from prison. On the same note, we learned only after his death that he was convicted under section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Association Act, which increases the number in the category of “Convicted.”