ARBITRARY DETENTION Most if not all of the cases involving journalists were arbitrary and therefore a violation of the right to liberty under international law.12 Journalists were not informed of the reasons for their detention, there were no grounds for detention, the grounds for detention were illegal, the procedural rights of the journalist were not respected, or the journalist was not brought before a judge in a reasonable amount of time. The arbitrary deprivation of journalists’ liberty has been declared a “crime against freedom of expression” by United Nations mechanisms.13 Arbitrary detention could in some cases be considered a war crime.14 The military did not abide by either global due process standards or Myanmar’s own procedural laws and rules throughout the process of detaining journalists.15 Detained journalists were never brought before a court in their initial period of detention and had no access to a lawyer. Each journalist was usually held in a police station immediately after being detained before being taken away to a military interrogation center. Their colleagues and families were often unaware of where they had been taken or why. Each journalist was held in a military interrogation center for a period lasting between two days to two weeks before being transferred to prison. Journalists were incarcerated nationwide but with concentrations in Insein Prison in Yangon (33%), as well as Ohbo Prison in Mandalay, Myitkyina Prison in Kachin, Pathein Prison in Ayeyarwady, Taung Lay Lone Prison in Shan, and Thayarwaddy Prison in Bago (27% combined). Some journalists’ family members were detained too, either to force a journalist at large to hand themselves in or to pressure a detained journalist to confess to a crime. In at least two cases, the military detained journalists’ young children, interrogating them for several days.16 The military also threatened to harm captured journalists’ families if the journalist did not confess and help with investigations into other journalists, sources, and networks.17 TARGETING JOURNALISM The military used arbitrary detentions in an effort to attack journalists with the aim of censoring all media coverage critical of the coup. The following table shows that in most cases in which a journalist was deprived of their liberty, there was probable cause to believe that the journalist was very likely targeted because they were a journalist 12 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 9. 13 United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2012), “Joint Declaration on crimes against freedom of expression”. 14 See: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Art. 8 for war crimes, and Art. 7 for crimes against humanity. See also: United Nations Human Rights Committee (2011), “General Comment No. 34”, paragraph 23. 15 For further information about the judicial system under the military, see: FEM (2023), “Myanmar military’s ���justice’ system”. 16 Myanmar Now (2021), “Junta forces in Yangon detain and interrogate journalist’s 7-year-old daughter”. 17 Radio Free Asia (2023), “The reporter who went through the hell of the interrogation room”. 7