Three senior journalists working for a news agency in Myanmar who fled after the military government ordered its operations to stop have been arrested by police in northern Thailand, their editor said on Monday.
The three work for Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an online and broadcast news agency, its executive director and chief editor, Aye Chan Naing, said in an e-mail.
Burma is the former name for Myanmar and is still used by some opponents of military rule.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The three, along with two rights advocates, whom he did not identify, were arrested on Sunday in Chiang Mai during a random search by police, Aye Chan Naing said.
They were charged with illegal entry into Thailand, he said.
From photographs published by local Thai media, it appeared that the journalists might have continued to report from a single-story house in which they seemed to have set up a makeshift video production studio.
The Burmese junta, which seized power in February and ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, has attempted to silence independent news media by withdrawing their licenses and by arresting journalists.
About 40 are in detention, including at least two who work for DVB.
Most of the detained journalists are being held on a provision in the Burmese Penal Code that prohibits comments that “cause fear,” spread “false news, [or] agitates directly or indirectly a criminal offense against a government employee.”
Violations are punishable by up to three years in prison.
“DVB strongly urges the Thai authorities to not deport them back to Burma, as their life will be in serious danger if they were to return,” the statement said. “They have been covering the demonstrations in Burma until March 8 — the day the military authority revoked DVB’s TV license and banned DVB from doing any kind of media work.”
Large street protests against military rule were being held in many cities in Myanmar at that time.
Government security forces increasingly used deadly force to disperse them, killing at least 750 protesters and bystanders, according to independent tallies.
The junta says that its forces have killed one-third that total and that using lethal force was justified to stop rioting.
The statement also appealed for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to intervene to protect the journalists’ safety, and for the international community to ask the Thai government not to deport them.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion