RECOMMENDATIONS To Myanmar’s future legitimate government: • Consult on, create, and, when in power, implement media freedom legislation, policies, and plans to protect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association. This should include specific, measurable, reform targets covering special media laws, general criminal laws frequently used against journalists and the media, and the judicial process itself, and include an unqualified commitment to international human rights standards and best practices. • Nullify - not repeal - the military’s unlawful “amendments” and nullify - not pardon - all military convictions of journalists. Nullification in law means that the military’s “amendments” or convictions should be treated as though they were unlawful and never existed.70 • Independently investigate and adequately remedy journalists’ claims of human rights violations, including torture. This should include adequate compensation and ongoing support for those affected. The military and its representatives, including police, prosecutors, judges, and prison authorities should be held accountable. To the United Nations and its mechanisms: • Prioritize Myanmar, applying the same political prioritization and resources as applied to other countries. This should include increased strategic, technical, and financial support for a comprehensive and multi-pronged program on media freedom and the safety of journalists, better utilizing the UN Plan of Action as a framework, and based on stakeholder consultations. • Ensure that the United Nations Country Team respects the wishes of the Myanmar people as voiced through their legitimately elected representatives, by better promoting human rights, including media freedom, and ensuring proper due diligence on projects, including independent evaluations of the success of all engagement with the military. This should include proper integration of the Human Rights Up Front initiative, and building upon previous recommendations to the UN in Myanmar, such as those in the Rosenthal Report. • Continue the strong leadership of the UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar while considering broadening the diversity of interventions to include thematic expertise from other Special Procedures. 70 To nullify means that the legal provision (or conviction) never existed and therefore neither did any defined rights, responsibilities, or offenses included within. Nullification therefore means that what the military did was illegitimate and unlawful at the time. “Repealing” and “pardoning” are the opposite in that they legitimize the lawfulness of the original provision or conviction, but say that it no longer exists or is no longer enforceable. Assessing Detentions of Journalists in Myanmar, Feb. 2021 to Feb. 2025 24