8/20/22, 9:09 PM Figures for past year’s persecution of journalism in Myanmar | RSF 3 journalists killed At least three journalists have been killed since the military coup. The photographer Soe Naing was declared dead on 14 December after four days of violent interrogation in police custody. Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung was killed during an attack by the armed forces on 25 December in the east of the country. Pu Tuidim, the founder and editor of the Khonumthung Media Group, was abducted in the northwest of the country, near the Indian border, on 7 January by soldiers who used him as a human shield and then cut his throat after first mutilating him in an appalling manner. 7 cases of torture or extreme violence In addition to Soe Naing and Pu Tuidim, who did not survive, at least two other journalists have been tortured while detained. One was Nathan Maung, a US journalist who was detained and tortured for three months. Maung reports that, while detained, he saw Kamayut Media co-founder Han Thar Nyein being tortured and threatened with sexual assault. As well as these cases of torture, three other journalists have been subjected to considerable violence at the time of arrest or during detention. Two Myanmar Pressphoto Agency journalists were injured by an army vehicle that deliberately drove into a crowd of protesters in Yangon and one of them, the woman video reporter Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun, was hospitalised with severe injuries. Sai Lwin, a photographer also known as Moe San, was injured by 10 shots fired with rubber bullets while he covered an anti-junta protest. 10 interrogation and detention centres Journalists are being detained throughout the country in at least 10 interrogation and detention centres. After interrogation, some are transferred to a prison but others continue to be held at the centre where they were interrogated, near their place of arrest. The biggest detention centre for journalists is Insein prison, located in a suburb of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. At least 14 journalists are currently held at Insein, which is notorious for its “dogs’ cages.” 12 media banned Within the first few months of the coup, the junta formally banned the leading independent media outlets. Some were prosecuted under section 505a of the penal code, while others had their licence withdrawn without any official grounds being given. This was the case with the Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent radio and TV broadcaster which continues to operate from bases abroad, as it did before the coup. https://rsf.org/en/figures-past-year-s-persecution-journalism-myanmar 2/4