On the afternoon of October 29, a contingent of approximately 20 soldiers and police officers from the western coastal Rakhine state stormed the office of independent outlet the Development Media Group (DMG), arresting local reporter Htet Aung and a security guard and seizing cameras, computers, and documents. Aung was reportedly arrested after taking photos of a religious ceremony in Sittwe, the state capital.
Aung and the security guard are both being held at a police station in Sittwe, with the United States Congress-funded outlet Radio Free Asia claiming the pair were not allowed to speak with their relatives. Their current status is currently unknown, as are the locations or well-being of remaining DMG staff, who have reportedly been forced into hiding. Junta authorities have failed to disclose the reason for their arrest.
The DMG was launched in 2012 on the Thai-Burmese border, before relocating to Rakhine. In 2019, the military-controlled Home Affairs Ministry filed a lawsuit against the outlet’s editor-in-chief Aung Min Oo under the Unlawful Associations Act, with authorities neglecting to disclose the justification for the charges. In 2021, editor U Ne Win San and reporter Ma Hnin New were charged under the Telecommunications Law, after publishing a story about alleged grain theft committed by government troops. The outlet is one of several independent publications restricted by the junta since 2021.
In the IFJ’s 2022 Myanmar situation report, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Broadcast’, journalists and media workers have faced a campaign of arrests, detentions, and violence from junta forces, often justified through a manipulated legal code. In September, Myanmar Now photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike was sentenced to over 20 years in prison following his arrest in Sittwe on May 23, the harshest decision against a media professional since the junta’s ascension to power in 2021.
The MJN said: "The raid on the news agency's office and the arrest of the journalist and the office guard are another act of oppression of the media by the coup junta. Freedom of the press is still oppressed and severely violated. It shows that journalists are still being targeted, arrested, and punished."
The IFJ said: “This latest attack on independent media in Myanmar is representative of the junta’s systematic campaign against dissent. The IFJ condemns the shuttering of the Development Media Group and the persecution of its journalists, and urges global governments, civil society organisations, and development actors to increase their efforts in support of independent Burmese media.”