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The editor-in-chief of Folks Media was charged with defamation following important feedback he made in a livestream video – the primary time an worker of a pro-junta information outlet has confronted authorized motion by the army for the reason that 2021 coup d’etat.
Kyaw Soe Oo’s feedback on Tuesday discovered fault with the Ministry of House Affairs for not sending any senior police officers to attend the funeral of an officer who was lately killed in Kachin state.
Nay Pyi Taw police arrested Kyaw Soe Oo the identical day, relations informed Radio Free Asia.
The ruling army junta, which seized energy in a February 2021 coup, has cracked down on unbiased media retailers in Myanmar to silence them from reporting concerning the coup and its violent aftermath.
In 2021, the junta shut down 5 media retailers that offered unbiased protection of the protests in opposition to army rule.
Final 12 months, the regime threatened authorized motion in opposition to Democratic Voice of Burma TV and Mizzima TV, demanding that the shuttered unbiased information broadcasters pay 1000’s of {dollars} in transmission charges, Voice of America reported.
Folks Media is understood for its pro-military views. Kyaw Soe Oo frequently broadcasts his video commentaries on Telegram and YouTube.
In Tuesday’s livestream, Kyaw Soe Oo famous that cops who’ve ties to high-ranking officers are sometimes by no means assigned to harmful frontier posts. It’s solely the officers with no cash or connections who’re transferred to these areas, he mentioned.
He additionally invited viewers to ship him info on potential bribery involving army and cops and playing companies.
After his arrest, Kyaw Soe Oo underwent two days of interrogation earlier than he was formally charged beneath Part 505(a) of the penal code, relations mentioned. That provision of the legislation was added by junta authorities after the coup to punish feedback or implications that the coup or the army is illegitimate.
Kyaw Soe Oo was despatched to Nay Pyi Taw jail on Thursday, relations mentioned.
Police raided Folks Media’s workplace in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday morning and confiscated computer systems, telephones and cameras, in keeping with sources near Kyaw Soe Oo.
There was no official assertion from the army junta concerning the arrest.
Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Matt Reed.
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