8/21/22, 10:24 PM Nationalists Subject Journalist to Devastating Legal Ordeal Features Nationalists Subject Journalist to Devastating Legal Ordeal  Myanmar Now editor Ko Swe Win (center) after being granted bail in July 2017 / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy By MOE MYINT 17 January 2019 YANGON—This week, Ko Swe Win, the editor of Yangon-based news outlet Myanmar Now, made his 52nd journey to Mandalay Division’s Mahar Aung Myay Township Court, which is hearing a defamation case opened against him in March 2017 by a supporter of ultranationalist monk U Wirathu. The 780-mile round trip takes at least 16 hours, meaning Ko Swe Win has traveled more than 37,000 miles, and spent some 1,500 hours on the road, in the past year and nine months. That’s the equivalent of traveling from Yangon to San Francisco and back again—twice. Such cases are normally heard in the township in which the defendant resides. The absurdity of Ko Swe Win’s ordeal—being forced to make the trek, at least twice a month, to a courtroom hundreds of miles from his home month after month— underscores the hostility of the environment that Myanmar journalists now operate in. In the course of doing their jobs, they now face the threat of prosecution from virtually all sides, including the government, the Army, supporters of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and other groups. The huge cost the defamation suit is imposing on Ko Swe Win in terms of energy, time and financial resources can only be seen as a form of punishment in itself. As the case drags on, it is taking its toll on him and his family. https://www.irrawaddy.com/features/nationalists-subject-journalist-devastating-legal-ordeal.html 1/5