Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010imprisoned: february 15, 2008Sein Win Maung, Myanmar NationA police raid on the offices of the weekly Myanmar Nation led to thearrest of editor Thet Zin and manager Sein Win Maung, according tolocal and international news reports. Police also seized the journalists’cell phones, footage of monk-led antigovernment demonstrations thattook place in Burma in September 2007, and a report by Paulo SergioPinheiro, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, accordingto Aung Din, director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign forBurma. The rapporteur’s report detailed killings associated with themilitary government’s crackdown on the 2007 demonstrators.The New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency cited family members assaying that the two were first detained in the Thingangyun Townshippolice station before being charged with illegal printing and publishingon February 25. On November 28, 2008, a closed court at the InseinPrison compound sentenced each to seven years in prison under thePrinters and Publishers Registration Law, which requires that all publicationsbe checked by a state censor before publication.Police ordered Myanmar Nation’s staff to stop publishing temporarily,according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom advocacygroup with representatives in Bangkok. The exile-run news websiteIrrawaddy said the newspaper was allowed to resume publishing inMarch 2008; by October of that year, exile-run groups said, the journalhad shut down for lack of leadership.Thet Zin was among 7,000 prisoners released as part of a governmentamnesty on September 17, 2009, according to international newsreports. Sein Win Maung remained behind bars in Kengtung Prison inShan state, approximately 400 miles from his family in Rangoon.imprisoned: june 4, 2008Maung Thura (Zarganar), freelance338Police arrested Maung Thura, a well-known blogger and comedianwho used the professional name Zarganar, or “Tweezers,” at hishome in Rangoon, according to news reports. The police also seizedelectronic equipment at the time of the arrest, according to AgenceFrance-Presse.Maung Thura had mobilized hundreds of entertainers to help survivorsof Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Rangoon and much of theIrrawaddy Delta in May 2008. His footage of relief work in hard-hitareas was circulated on DVD and the Internet. Photographs and DVD