{"id":37075,"date":"2018-04-11T19:34:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T17:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/37075-myanmar-and-the-southeast-asian-press-squeeze.html"},"modified":"2025-03-20T16:58:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:58:49","slug":"myanmar-and-the-southeast-asian-press-squeeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/37075-myanmar-and-the-southeast-asian-press-squeeze.html","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar and the Southeast Asian press squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across Southeast Asia \u2013 but especially Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines \u2013 journalists are facing arrest, intimidation and violence.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On the afternoon of December 12 in Myanmar, Ma Pan Ei Mon asked her husband,\u00a0Reuters\u00a0journalist Ko Wa Lone, if she should cook dinner for him and his colleague, Ko Kyaw Soe Oo.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyaw Soe Oo was in Yangon from Sittwe,\u201d Pan Ei Mon told\u00a0Frontier.\u00a0\u201cBut [Wa Lone] told me that they were meeting the police for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that night, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested near a restaurant on the northern outskirts of Yangon. Prior to their arrest, the journalists\u00a0had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men\u00a0at Inn Din village, in Rakhine State\u2019s Maungdaw Township, in late August. They had uncovered evidence and testimony tying the killings to security forces and Rakhine villagers.<\/p>\n

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo remain on trial. They are accused of\u00a0breaching the country\u2019s Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The circumstances around their arrest have been a\u00a0key point of contention\u00a0during the trial,\u00a0which at times has descended into farce.<\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s Ministry of Information said that the pair were \u201carrested for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces\u201d, which they intended to share \u201cwith foreign media\u201d.<\/p>\n

Arresting officers said the documents were found during a routine patrol, but the pair told relatives that they were arrested almost immediately after being handed documents by two policemen they had met at the restaurant for the first time. They said they had not read the documents before they were arrested.<\/p>\n

Two police officers were also arrested under the Official Secrets Act, but it is unclear whether they are still being held or if they have been charged.<\/p>\n

The trial has revealed the glaring gaps in Myanmar\u2019s judicial system. Under heavy scrutiny from the defence lawyer \u2013 a rare occurrence in the country\u2019s courts \u2013 one of the arresting officers said he had burned his notes, without offering an explanation why.<\/p>\n

Another prosecution witness was shown to have \u201cThet Oo Maung\u201d \u2013 Wa Lone\u2019s real name \u2013 and \u201cNo.3 road and Nilar road junction\u201d \u2013 the place where police said they were arrested \u2013 written on his hand, apparently to ensure his testimony matched the official version of events.<\/p>\n

The trial\u00a0has attracted widespread international condemnation; those who have joined the chorus calling for the pair\u2019s release include former US President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres. Last week, the London-based firm of world-renowned human rights lawyer Ms Amal Clooney,\u00a0said she would serve as their counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trial has been farcical in many respects and has laid bare that the two\u00a0Reuters\u00a0reporters\u2019 arrest\u00a0was a government setup from the start\u00a0to suppress their news coverage of the Rohingya crisis,\u201d Mr Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative, Committee to Project Journalists, told\u00a0Frontier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf authorities are willing to take down\u00a0Reuters\u00a0on spurious charges, then what local media will dare to report on sensitive stories, particularly the Rohingya humanitarian crisis? The case, filed under the vague and overbroad Official Secrets Act, will inevitably lead to widespread self-censorship among journalists going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many, the prosecution of the journalists\u00a0highlights the huge backsliding on press freedom in Myanmar\u00a0over the past year. Yet this phenomenon is not confined to Myanmar; it stretches right across Southeast Asia, from the arrests of journalists covering the Rakhine crisis to restrictions on media access to Indonesia\u2019s West Papua in the east.<\/p>\n

While the issues in West Papua for example are not new, developments in Myanmar, as well as Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia, are relatively recent, and represent a worrying trend towards illiberalism and, in some cases, authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

The night of the arrests<\/h3>\n

On the evening of December 12, Pan Ei Mon said she tried to call her husband shortly after 9pm, but his phone was switched off.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is usually home by about 9pm,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes his phone is off, but he knows I was home alone so he uses someone else\u2019s phone to contact me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was still not home by 10pm, Pan Ei Mon said she phoned the\u00a0Reuters\u00a0driver who had taken the journalists to the restaurant. He said the meeting had not yet finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 10.45 I called again. The driver told me the interview was still happening, but there was something different in his voice,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he didn\u2019t want me to worry, so he told me the meeting was still happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

After midnight she said she received a phone call from the\u00a0Reuters\u00a0office in Yangon, telling her that her husband and Kyaw Soe Oo were missing.<\/p>\n

Pan Ei Mon said she spent a frantic night desperately trying to contact Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was going crazy. My anxiety was limitless,\u201d said Pan Ei Mon, fighting back tears. \u201cI was even worried if they were still alive. I mean, what does \u2018missing\u2019 mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

After two weeks of being held incommunicado, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were finally brought to court on December 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I have seen him at court, I feel better,\u201d she said. \u201cBut every time I go to the court, I hope I can bring him home with me. I feel discouraged and weak without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Journalists<\/p>\n

Journalists from the Cambodia Daily working in Phnom Penh shortly before the publication closed in September. (AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Reuters\u00a0case is not the first time journalists in Myanmar have been detained in the past year.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, three reporters \u2013 two from\u00a0DVB\u00a0and one from\u00a0The Irrawaddy \u2013\u00a0were arrested after covering a drug-burning ceremony\u00a0in territory controlled by the Ta\u2019ang National Liberation Army, an armed group active in northern Shan State.<\/p>\n

The trio were released in September, after spending two months in Hsipaw Prison facing a charge under Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act.<\/p>\n

Then, in October, three journalists and their driver were arrested in Nay Pyi Taw after flying a drone near the parliament building. They also spent two months in jail, under the 1934 Aircraft Act, before being released in December \u2013 just days after the\u00a0Reuters\u00a0journalists were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as one of your colleagues is released, it feels like another one goes inside.\u00a0It\u2019s like a revolving door,\u201d one Yangon-based journalist told\u00a0Frontier\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n

Reporters operating in the country face personal risks, too. In December, Ko Kyaw Lynn, a freelance journalist based in Rakhine State, was stabbed while walking through downtown Sittwe.<\/p>\n

Kyaw Lynn told\u00a0Frontier\u00a0that on December 20 he was stabbed in the back with a makeshift weapon. He was rushed to hospital, where he underwent surgery, before being released four days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not feel safe. I do not feel secure anymore,\u201d said Kyaw Lynn, who is now in hiding in Yangon and still too weak to return to work.<\/p>\n

Kyaw Lynn said he believed the attack was related to the articles he had been writing concerning corruption and illicit drugs in his home state, and that his attackers had been paid to kill him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our Rakhine State, there are people who force-feed hatred among the communities,\u201d he said. However, he added that young people are determined to stand up against those \u201cwho show nothing but hatred and aggression to any and all international organisations, exploit the ignorance and lack of awareness of the grassroots people, traffic narcotics and lie to the people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we stand up and resist them by criticising them, we are labelled as human rights defenders or activists greedy for US dollars and traitors, and we are blamed and verbally abused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018As bad as it has ever been\u2019<\/h3>\n

Which Southeast Asian country has backslid the furthest on press freedom over the past year? It would be a close race, but Cambodia must surely be near the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cCambodia\u2019s fa\u00e7ade of media freedom collapsed in 2017,\u201d said the Cambodian Center for Independent Media in its most recent survey on press freedom.<\/p>\n

One of the most notable developments was the closure of\u00a0The Cambodia Daily\u00a0in September, after a battle with the government over a US$6 million-dollar tax bill. The\u00a0Daily,\u00a0which was founded in 1993, had been critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen\u2019s increasingly authoritarian administration. With an election expected later this year, critics view the tax demands as being politically motivated.<\/p>\n

The paper went down swinging; in its final edition, published on September 4, its front page ran with the headline \u201cDescent into Outright Dictatorship\u201d above a story about the arrest of Mr Kem Sokha, leader of the Cambodian National Rescue Party.<\/p>\n

The CNRP was dissolved a month later, a move that Mr Charles Santiago, chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, called \u201cthe final nail in the coffin for Cambodian democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s closure followed the shuttering of more than a dozen radio stations, including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Voice of Democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is as bad as it\u2019s ever been,\u201d said a Cambodia-based journalist who spoke to\u00a0Frontier\u00a0on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns in the country. \u201cThe absence of [the Cambodia Daily] means that people have less independent and in-depth stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation will get worse in the next few months ahead of the election, I think. There will be a lot more pressure on journalists,\u201d said the journalist.<\/p>\n

In November, two former reporters for RFA, Mr Uon Chhin and Mr Yeang Sotherain, were arrested under charges of espionage, and the pair remain in jail.<\/p>\n

Last month, reports emerged that\u00a0The Phnom Penh Post\u00a0was the next publication to be targeted by the Hun Sen regime with a hefty tax bill, this time totaling $3.9 million.<\/p>\n

However, the paper\u2019s CEO Mr Marcus Holmes denied the tax demand was politically motivated and said talks were continuing with the country\u2019s General Department of Taxation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a perfectly routine tax audit. This is not us being shut down,\u201d Holmes told\u00a0Southeast Asia Globe.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re not in the same situation the\u00a0Cambodia Daily\u00a0was. This is a number that is halfway through an ongoing negotiation with the tax office about a tax audit that happened at the end of last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome of the tax bill, it is clear that press freedom in Cambodia has taken a giant leap backwards in the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation for journalists in Cambodia has deteriorated rapidly, closing what was once a relatively open space for the media in the region,\u201d said Crispin from the CPJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime Minister Hun Sen has made it clear that his government will no longer tolerate media criticism and is moving with a vengeance against previously critical newspapers and broadcast outlets,\u201d he said, adding that Hun Sen appeared to taking cues from \u201chis financial patron China on how to repress and control the media\u201d.<\/p>\n

Battling the president<\/h3>\n

Governments are also targeting independent media elsewhere in the region, not least in the Philippines where President Rodrigo Duterte<\/a> has\u00a0Rappler\u00a0in his sights.<\/p>\n

Rappler\u00a0was only founded in 2012 but has been one of the strongest critics of the bombastic leader, particularly his controversial war on drugs that has seen thousands killed. The International Criminal Court recently announced a \u201cpreliminary examination\u201d into the campaign, to which Duterte has threatened to withdraw from the ICC.<\/p>\n

In January, he accused\u00a0Rappler\u00a0of being a \u201cfake news outlet\u201d \u2013 repeating the well-worn trope of US President Donald Trump towards any media outlet that is critical of his administration.<\/p>\n

\"CEO<\/p>\n

CEO of Philippine news website Rappler, Maria Ressa (centre), arrives at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters in Manila. (AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n

Later that month,\u00a0Rappler\u2019s\u00a0licence was revoked and the publication\u2019s political correspondents have been barred from covering government events, including those outside the presidential palace. The government denied that the decision to revoke\u00a0Rappler\u2019s\u00a0licence was an attack on a free press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to deny that the state has infringed on the freedom of the press, particularly on Rappler or any of its reporters,\u201d said palace spokesman Harry Roque in a statement. \u201cIf the President wanted to do that, he could have just sent the armed forces and padlocked them as done by other regimes. The President has never done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frontier\u00a0was unable to reach Rappler founder Ms Maria Ressa for this article, but she told\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0in March that her publication is ready to fight the charges against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end goal is to keep reporting as long as we\u2019re a democracy, and this, as far as I know, is still a democracy. And in a funny way it\u2019s a backhanded compliment that the president sees us, a small start-up, as a threat,\u201d said Ressa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m banking on the fact that there are still good people in government who will prevent this,\u201d Ressa told the British publication. \u201cI\u2019ve been a journalist for more than 33 years, and at Rappler we refuse to change, I refuse to be bullied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rappler\u00a0was not the first Philippines outlet to be targeted by Duterte. In March 2017, he criticised newspaper\u00a0Philippine Daily Inquirer\u00a0and television station ABS-CBN for what he called unfair coverage of his presidency, and said they would meet their \u201ckarma\u201d one day.<\/p>\n

Months later, renowned Filipino businessman Mr Ramon Ang \u2013 who helped finance Duterte\u2019s presidential campaign \u2013 acquired control of the\u00a0Inquirer. Duterte also threatened to block ABS-CBN\u2019s application to renew its operating licence, which requires congressional approval.<\/p>\n

A worrying trend<\/h3>\n

While it is Myanmar, the Philippines and Cambodia in particular that have attracted the most attention for their attacks on press freedom, few other countries are making progress.<\/p>\n

In the 2017 Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters without Borders, the only country in Southeast Asia to break into the top 100 globally was East Timor.<\/p>\n

\"Press<\/p>\n

Even Indonesia, which is the top-ranking member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has seen some setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndonesia\u2019s media is, for the most part, quite vibrant,\u201d said Dr Ross Tapsell, a researcher from the Australian National University, who specialises on media in Southeast Asia. \u201cProfessional journalists can report on a number of issues that they couldn\u2019t 20-odd years ago \u2013 with the exception of [West] Papua.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Tapsell said that the government is increasing its crackdown on criticism on social media, including the use of the Electronic Information and Transaction Law, which is being used to arrest citizens for online defamation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been around since 2008, but it is increasingly being used by powerful people, such as politicians, to arrest those who criticise people in power,\u201d Tapsell told\u00a0Frontier.<\/em><\/p>\n

In recent days, press freedom in Malaysia \u2013 where an election is due to take place later this year \u2013 has also been thrust into the limelight, with the country\u2019s cabinet on March 21 approving a draft law against \u201cfake news\u201d. The bill was being discussed in parliament as Frontier went to print.<\/p>\n

Under the Anti-Fake News 2018 Law, anyone deemed to have published fake news faces a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (K171 million), up to 10 years\u2019 imprisonment, or both.<\/p>\n

The bill defines fake news as \u201cnews, information, data or reports which is or are wholly or partly false\u201d, according to a\u00a0Reuters\u00a0<\/em>report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drafting of the bill is intended to provide for several offences related to the circulation of fake news and measures to curb fake news,\u201d said Ms Azalina Othman Said, a minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department. \u201cThe bill was drafted for public interest to protect citizens from the wave of fake news and from becoming victims of fake news,\u201d she said, adding that the new law would not curb free speech.<\/p>\n

But critics disagree.<\/p>\n

Mr Phil Robertson, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said that Najib and his administration was \u201ctaking a page out of Donald Trump\u2019s playbook\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is the government doesn\u2019t like independent journalists doing critical reporting on Malaysia\u2019s myriad scandals and rights abuses, and has been looking for a way to attack popular news sites,\u201d he told\u00a0Frontier.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe \u2018fake news\u2019 laws are best understood as the next assault on media freedom in the region.\u201d\"Malaysian<\/p>\n

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is planning to introduce an anti \u201cfake news\u201d law. (AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n

Some shining lights<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bright spots in Southeast Asia\u2019s media landscape are difficult to find, but they do exist. Close to home,\u00a0Frontier\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>senior reporter\u00a0Ko Mratt Kyaw Thu was in February awarded the Kate Webb Prize for Asian Journalists<\/a>, the first Myanmar recipient of the prestigious award.<\/p>\n

Mratt Kyaw Thu has been covering conflict in Rakhine State \u2013\u00a0including being chased out of Maungdaw by a mob threatening to kill him<\/a>\u00a0in September \u2013 as well as the civil war in the country\u2019s north.<\/p>\n

In his acceptance speech, Mratt Kyaw Thu dedicated the award to the journalists who have been arrested in the country in the past year \u2013 including the\u00a0Reuters\u00a0<\/em>pair, who themselves were granted the PEN\/Barbey Freedom to Write Award in February. Last month,\u00a0Ko Swe Win, editor of\u00a0Myanmar Now,\u00a0<\/em>was one of three people awarded the EU\u2019s Schuman Award for Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenging environment, new outlets have been established in the region. One example is\u00a0Mekong Review,\u00a0<\/em>a quarterly literary journal that publishes fiction, essays, reviews and poetry from across Southeast Asia. An independent publication with no political, institutional or commercial affiliations, it exists only on the proceeds of sales and subscriptions from readers.<\/p>\n

Mr Minh Bui Jones, the\u00a0Review<\/em>\u2019s chief editor, said he founded the publication as a personal project to stay connected to Southeast Asia after living in Cambodia for seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created the magazine in a month, which sounds improbable, I know, but it was made easier by the fact that the idea of a regional literary journal has been bubbling in my head for several years,\u201d Jones told\u00a0Frontier\u00a0<\/em>by email.<\/p>\n

He said that, as the magazine does not run news or political commentaries, it didn\u2019t have many issues with the increasing restrictions in the region. \u201cIn addition, we\u2019re small, obscure and have bugger-all influence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he warned against over-generalising too much about Southeast Asia, drawing parallels in press freedom between countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. \u201cWe need to be careful when we generalise. Southeast Asia is not Western Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With regards to the future of the magazine, Jones said that he doesn\u2019t really have future plans. \u201cEverything is in the present. We live issue by issue. We\u2019re like those streetfood vendors. Our future rests with our content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dark days<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Crispin, from CPJ, said that the press freedom situation is deteriorating across all of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are dark days to be a journalist almost everywhere in Southeast Asia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

No one is feeling that more keenly than Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who appeared in court once more on March 21, exactly 100 days since they were arrested. Pan Ei Mon was there again, hoping in vain for the release of her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since we first met, I have always looked up to him,\u201d she told\u00a0Frontier\u00a0<\/em>on February 15, a day after she had attended another of the pair\u2019s hearings, which fell on Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see him at court, I try not to show my inner feelings to him; I try to hide my sadness,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this pretending is exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was first published on Frontier Myanmar.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across Southeast Asia \u2013 but especially Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines \u2013 journalists are facing arrest, intimidation and violence. On the afternoon of December 12 in Myanmar, Ma Pan Ei Mon asked her husband,\u00a0Reuters\u00a0journalist Ko Wa Lone, if she should cook dinner for him and his colleague, Ko Kyaw Soe Oo. \u201cKyaw Soe Oo was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":64155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[2987],"ji_location":[2365],"class_list":["post-37075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reconciliation","tag-rodrigo-duterte-en","ji_location-myanmar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMyanmar and the Southeast Asian press squeeze - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/37075-myanmar-and-the-southeast-asian-press-squeeze.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Myanmar and the Southeast Asian press squeeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Across Southeast Asia \u2013 but especially Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines \u2013 journalists are facing arrest, intimidation and violence. 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