Myanmar newspaper journalists held after handing themselves in to police

Young journalists club

News ID: 30473
Publish Date: 13:26 - 21 October 2018
TEHRAN, October 21 - Three senior journalists at Myanmar’s largest private newspaper were remanded in custody after handing themselves in to police on Wednesday, facing accusations of causing “fear or alarm” following a complaint from the Yangon regional government.

TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Three senior journalists at Myanmar’s largest private newspaper were remanded in custody after handing themselves in to police on Wednesday, facing accusations of causing “fear or alarm” following a complaint from the Yangon regional government. 

One of the men, Eleven Media Group’s editor-in-chief Kyaw Zaw Linn, had earlier told Reuters that police raided the paper’s offices at about 7 p.m. on Tuesday, but he and two other journalists sought by the authorities were not there.

“The office informed me that they came because of an article in the journal,” he said, shortly before entering a police station in central Yangon’s Tamwe township with lawyers on Wednesday morning.

Hours later the three journalists were taken in handcuffs to Tamwe township court, where they were remanded in custody to Insein Prison, northern Yangon, until Oct. 17.

Defense lawyer Kyi Myint told reporters outside the courthouse that the Yangon regional government had filed a complaint over an article by the paper’s chief reporter Phyo Wai Win. The article, published on Monday, included quotes from regional lawmakers raising questions about public spending, including on an overhaul of transport in the country’s commercial hub.

Source: Reuters

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