The IPI global network strongly condemns the sentencing of Thaung Win, the former publisher of independent news outlet The Irrawaddy, to five years in prison for sedition. We call on the military authorities to immediately release Win and all imprisoned journalists in the country.
Win was arrested in September 2022 in his home and initially charged with violations of the Publishing and Distribution Act, for publishing news that allegedly “negatively affected national security, rule of law and public peace.” Since then, he has been detained at Insein Prison, which has a reputation for brutal conditions.
He was arrested three days after the outlet published a story about the close ties between Min Aung Hlaing, the general who rules Myanmar under the junta, and Aung Ko Win, a business tycoon, The Irrawaddy reported.
The Irrawaddy has been a frequent target of the junta. The outlet was ordered to close in November 2022 by the junta after facing a publication ban, legal charges over its reporting on anti-coup protests, and multiple raids on its offices. Win is also not the first journalist from The Irrawaddy to be charged — in August 2022, a former photojournalist for the outlet, Ko Zaw Zaw, was sentenced to three years in prison for incitement. On the same day as Win’s sentencing, the court also issued arrest warrants for three other editors from the outlet.
Since the military coup in February 2021, the junta has attacked and targeted independent media, and jailed scores of journalists.
“The military authorities in Myanmar must immediately release Thuang Win and drop all charges against him”, IPI Director of Advocacy Amy Brouillette said. “These sedition charges are unjust and the harassment of The Irrawaddy must end.” She added: “The junta must also stop its attacks on independent media and immediately release all imprisoned journalists.”