6/11/22, 12:15 PM Myanmar’s military junta eliminates independent media | RSF on 21 February “for three months,” according to the welcome message on its website. The website of the newspaper The Voice has not been updated since 1 March. The military had to use stronger pressure to get two other newspapers, 7 Day News and Eleven, to stop publishing. It was only after the military authorities rescinded their licences on 8 March that they resigned themselves to stop publishing. The Eleven group nonetheless continues to post news on its website. News access endangered The military authorities have meanwhile been carrying our raids and equipment seizures – on 8 March at the offices of the Myanmar Now news agency and then, the next day, at the offices of the Mizzima News multimedia news group and the Kamayut Media video news website. The latter’s licence was not rescinded but two of its executives, Nathan Maung and Han Thar Nyein, have been arrested, preventing it from continuing to operate. Legal proceedings were initiated against the online media The Irrawaddy on 14 March under article 505 (a) of the penal code. This article has often been used to convict journalists critical of the military but this is the first time that an entire news organisation has been targeted. Ten journalists are currently facing up to three years in prison for covering the street protests against the coup. Other journalists have been the targets of reprisals for covering the protests against the military government. Two were abducted on 19 March while following the trial of Win Htein, one of the leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party whose government was brought down by the coup. One of the two, BBC correspondent Aung Thura, was released on 22 March after three days of interrogation and sleep deprivation. Like other reporters, he had to sign https://rsf.org/en/myanmars-military-junta-eliminates-independent-media 2/4