Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis 15 In the past year, at least 12 journalists have been arrested, and others have faced threats of violence while reporting on ongoing conflicts and other sensitive issues, contributing to a deteriorating environment for freedom of expression in the country.32 Time reported that: Reporters have expressed frustration with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, which has proven itself firmly in alignment with the country’s powerful military to repress critical coverage. International media organizations operating in Myanmar have begun publishing stories without by-lines to protect their local reporters, who have faced escalating intimidation, harassment, and death threats from the public and the authorities. Some outlets have even temporarily shifted personnel out of Myanmar.33 Burmese news agency Frontiers Myanmar reported in 2017 that: The government is as secretive and non-transparent as its predecessors. Journalists remain locked out of parliament sessions and are regularly denied information by government agencies, including when using the information request provisions of the News Media Law. It continues to subsidise state media outlets that unashamedly push government propaganda. But it’s the growing application of section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law that is the most worrying development. As has been well documented, there were seven cases under the former government, but 38 from when the National League for Democracy took office to the end of 2016. The NLD government has been complicit in these prosecutions, because every case requires sign-off from the Ministry of Communications and Transport. It has the power to stop them, but it has chosen not to do so. It has also been slow to act on amending the law, although it insists changes are coming.34 Political Prisoners 28. More than 200 political prisoners were released when the NLD came to power in 2016, and 36 this April 2018. But reportedly, a similar number are still in jail or on bail awaiting trial.35 (This does not include the unknown number of Rohingya). 29. However, a recent investigation by Myanmar Times, entitled “Not all female political prisoners became State Counsellor”, reported that the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) had identified up to 240 female political prisoners still behind bars. In April when the NLD granted pardons to 36 political prisoners, none of them were women. It also found that female political prisoners had a tougher time in prison than their fellow male inmates–there were less of them and they were less likely to mobilise for better conditions than their male counterparts.36 32 33 34 35 36 Myanmar: HRC must act on dehumanising ‘hate speech’ and criminalisation of journalists, Article19, March 2018 Time, ‘It’s Dangerous to Write the Truth.’ Journalists Fear the End of Press Freedom in Myanmar’, January 19 2018 ‘Has press freedom really improved?’, Frontier Myanmar, May 2017 Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), March 2018 ‘Not all political prisoners became state counsellor’ Myanmar Times, May 2018