Amnesty International shared a petition calling for the immediate release of Myanmar Now photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike, who was sentenced by the regime to 20 years in prison, on Thursday. Sai Zaw Thaike was arrested in May 2023 during a reporting trip to Arakan State to report on the devastation caused by Cyclone Mocha, according to Amnesty International and Myanmar Now.
“Sai Zaw should be able to report freely. He should also be at home, spending time with his family and doing the things he loves. Instead he is locked up, enduring beatings and periods of solitary confinement,” Amnesty International stated in its press release on Dec. 4.
Sai Zaw Thaike, 42, is a Myanmar photojournalist who remained inside the country following the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. He was sentenced by a military tribunal in Yangon to 20 years in prison with hard labor for violating Section 505-A of the penal code, which criminalizes spreading “fake news” and “incitement” against the military.
Sai Zaw Thaike was also convicted of violating Section 124 of the Sedition Law, Section 66 (D) of the Telecommunications Law, and Section 27 of the Natural Disaster Management Law in 2023.
A source inside Yangon’s Insein Prison told DVB that Sai Zaw Thaike and two other political prisoners were sent to an interrogation center earlier this year for sharing information with the regime’s Myanmar National Human Rights Commission during an inspection of the prison.
Sai Zaw Thaike is serving the second longest prison sentence handed to a journalist. Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of violating Section 52 (J) of the Counter-Terrorism Law.
“No journalist should ever be targeted for carrying out their work. But around the world, journalists are being silenced, jailed and killed, simply for doing their jobs,” Amnesty International added in its Dec. 4 press release.
Myanmar journalists Zaw Linn Htut (Phoe Thar), Htet Htet Khine, Nay Naw, Nyein Chan Wai, Aung San Lin, and Sithu Aung Myint, were freed in a regime prison amnesty on Nov. 27.
“We welcome the release of these six Myanmar journalists, but dozens of their colleagues are still unjustly detained,” said Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) senior Southeast Asia representative.
A total of 724 political prisoners were released out of the 3,085 granted an amnesty on Nov. 27. The remaining 2,361 prisoners included in the amnesty are reportedly still serving sentences for additional charges, according to DVB data.
CPJ calls on the regime in Naypyidaw to free all the remaining jailed journalists. At least 27 remain in prison, according to the press freedom organization.
Seven journalists have been killed since the 2021 coup. A total of 40 journalists, including seven women, were being held in prisons up to May 3, according to the last Independent Press Council Myanmar (IPCM) report.
Established in 2023 by Myanmar journalists and media experts in exile, the IPCM claimed that at least 200 journalists have been arrested since 2021.
The publication licenses of 15 media outlets, including DVB and Myanmar Now, were revoked after the 2021 coup. Due to severe restrictions placed on independent media in Myanmar, 64 newsrooms have had to relocate outside of the country, according to IPCM.
Myanmar has continuously ranked as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists since 2021, CPJ added.
DVB has documented that out of the total 106,810 prisoners released in regime amnesties since Feb. 12, 2021, only 8,882 of them were political prisoners, which includes journalists.
The Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar) stated that only 13 percent of those released in 18 regime prisoner amnesties since 2021 have been political prisoners.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has documented that 30,074 people have been arrested for political reasons since the 2021 coup with 22,673 still held in detention.
