Analysis: Current Landscape of Hate Speech in Myanmar his murder. Kyi Lin and Aung Win Zaw were sentenced to death, while Aung Win Tun and Zeya Phyo received a three-year sentence for harboring a fugitive.517 At the time of writing, the alleged mastermind of the plot, Lieutenant Colonel Aung Win Khaing, still remains at large. „„ Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were set up and arrested by police for their investigative work implicating security forces in the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys in Rakhine State.518 They were charged under the Official Secrets Act, convicted, and received seven-year sentences.519 The two reporters’ appeal to the Yangon High Court was rejected in December 2018, and the Supreme Court similarly upheld the lower courts’ decisions in April 2019.520 The two journalists had served 511 days in jail before they were released by presidential amnesty in May 2019.521 The two journalists received a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for their work.522 „„ Pulitzer-winning Associated Press journalist Esther Htusan received death threats for her critical reporting of the military operations in Rakhine State and the civilian government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.523 The death threats, and accompanying calls to action against Htusan, were shared widely on Facebook. These threats, coupled with incidents of in-person intimidation, forced her to flee Myanmar in 2017.524 „„ The Voice Daily’s editor-in-chief Kyaw Min Swe and satire columnist Kyaw Zwa Naing were arrested and charged with defamation in May 2017.525 The latter had written an article entitled “Oath of the Nation of Bullets,” which mocked a military propaganda film entitled, “Union Oath.”526 The Voice Daily published a formal apology and issued a correction.527 The charges were dropped four months later.528 „„ Three journalists, Aye Naing, Pyae Phone Naing, and Thein Zaw, who worked for the Democratic Voice of Burma and The Irrawaddy were arrested for covering an EAO’s drug-burning ceremony held as part of the UN’s International Day Against Drug Abuse in June 2017.529 They were charged under the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act and if convicted, could face up to three years in prison.530 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 San Yamin Aung, “Two Sentenced to Death for Killing NLD Lawyer U Ko Ni,” The Irrawaddy, February 15, 2019, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/two-sentenced-death-killing-nld-lawyer-u-ko-ni.html. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo: Reuters Journalists Freed in Myanmar,” BBC News, May 7, 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/world-asia-48182712. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo Honored with the Pulitzer Prize,” DW, April 17, 2019, https://www.dw.com/en/wa-loneand-kyaw-soe-oo-honored-with-the-pulitzer-prize/a-48367961. Shawn Crispin, “Threats, arrests, and access denied as Myanmar backtracks on press freedom,” Committee to Protect Journalists, February 12, 2018, https://cpj.org/2018/02/threats-arrests-and-access-denied-as-myanmar-backt/. Ibid. “Editor and columnist detained on criminal defamation charges in Myanmar,” Committee to Protect Journalists, June 5, 2017, https://cpj.org/2017/06/editor-and-columnist-detained-on-criminal-defamati/. Ibid. Human Rights Watch, Dashed Hopes, 19-20. Ibid. Ibid., 41-44. Ibid., 44. 79