Reporters from the Arakan State-based Western News went into hiding over the weekend after junta forces attempted to find the location of its office in Sittwe on Friday night, according to sources from the local news outlet.
Suspected members of Special Branch (SB) and their traditional police counterparts questioned some Sittwe residents as to where the Western News office was located on the evening of November 19, according to a statement released by the news agency.
“The head of a police station phoned the Western News office, but there was no one in the office to answer the phone. At night, police searched for the Western News office in Sittwe. Police asked some locals where the Western News office was,” said an individual from the news outlet.
“The junta soldiers conducted interrogations of residents in some wards in Sittwe yesterday. The search for the office by the police has had a profound effect on the media,” he said. “Young people working in the media were shocked when the police came to find the office and searched for them. Our office will be closed tomorrow due to the police’s search.”
Recently, the Arakan State minister for security and border affairs and the chief of the Arakan State police force summoned officials from Western News and warned them not to use the term “military council” in reference to Myanmar’s junta, according to the Western News editor-in-chief.
Two Arakan State-based news outlets reported that the seventh anniversary of the death of eight Arakan Army (AA) cadets was commemorated in Sittwe on the evening of November 19.
The Arakan State-based news outlet, Narinjara, published a story under the headline “Commemoration ceremony for eight AA cadets in Sittwe”, and was reportedly investigated by suspected SB members, according to Western News.
“There were reports that members of the SB were investigating, but nothing significant happened in our office. There were no police searches,” said Ko Mahn Yu Kyaw, an assistant editor of Narinjara.
“Authorities should not use such intimidation or pressure while the news media is writing and publishing factual information for the public to have access to information. Attempts by the police to crack down on the media undermine the public’s right to information,” he added.
“In this situation, the pressure on journalists in Arakan State is less than in other parts of Myanmar,” said U Myint Kyaw, a veteran journalist. “However, the [conduct of the] military council is seen as a sign that it will not allow more in matters related to the Arakan Army.”
Twenty-three cadets were killed, including eight from the Arakan Army, when artillery fired by the Myanmar military hit a cadet training school in Laiza, a border town controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State, in November 2014.
