On 27 August 2024, the editorial team of Dawei Watch, an independent online media outlet in Myanmar, disclosed on social media that two of their colleagues, journalists Myo Myint Oo and Aung San Oo, were sentenced, respectively, to life and 20 years in prison earlier this year. The two reporters were convicted under the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law by a military court in Myeik Prison, located in the south of Myanmar. Aung San Oo, 49 years old, was sentenced in February, and Myo Myint Oo, 41 years old, in May, though the court did not reveal why the journalists were guilty of terrorism and never published the verdict.

The two journalists were arrested at their homes in December 2023 by police and military officers who confiscated their laptops and phones before taking them in for interrogation. According to their editor-in-chief, junta soldiers claimed the arrests were retribution for “publishing reports.” Myo Myint Oo and Aung San Oo were allegedly beaten during their detention and denied access to legal counsel.

“The extreme severity of the sentences recently handed down by Myanmar’s military courts illustrates how the junta will try to silence any independent journalists reporting on the conflict. We urge the international community to increase pressure on the regime to cease its terror campaign against reporters and immediately release these two journalists along with the 60 others currently imprisoned in the country.” ~ Cédric Alviani, Director of RSF’s Asia-Pacific Bureau

An online media specialising in local news coverage of southern Myanmar, Dawei Watch has been forced to operate in secret since the large-scale crackdown on press freedom initiated by the military junta following its coup d’état in February 2021. Two other journalists and a staff member from the outlet were detained for eight days by the junta in January 2022.

The military regime, which has already jailed many reporters or driven them into exile, recently increased the prison sentences for journalists. The award-winning documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe was given a life sentence in January 2024 on trumped-up charges of “abetting” terrorism. In late 2023, photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike was convicted to 20 years in prison on various charges, including misinformation and sedition, both of which are commonly used by the junta to persecute journalists.

Myanmar has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with seven killed by the army since 2021, and is ranked 171st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

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